444 AD Armagh founded by St Patrick. Originally known as Ard Macha.
450 AD Emain Macha either falls to the invading Ui Neill Gaels or is abandoned by the Ulstermen as they retreat east. Another massive earthworks [the Dorsey] is erected to stem the advance eastwards of the Gaels.
490 AD The ancient kingdom of Dalriada was established by the Dal Riatai.
492 AD St Patrick Dies.
540 AD Movilla Abbey [Mag Bile - Plain of the sacred tree] was founded by Finian. From tree rings it has been found that this was the second coldest year since the end of the Ice Age in Ireland. Famine and plague sweep Europe.
546 AD Derry [Daire Coluim Cille] was founded by St Columba.
555 AD Bangor Abbey [Beanchor Mor] was founded by the Cruithin Abbot, Comgal.
563 AD Battle of Moneymore [Moin Dairi Lothair] where the Cruithin suffer a massive defeat at the hands of the northern Ui Neill Gaels. Columba founds Iona.
575 AD Convention of Druim Cett. Agreement between the Christian church and the quasi pagan fili [poets].
579 AD St Finian Dies.
579 AD Battle of Coleraine between the Ui Neill Gaels and the Cruithin.
589 AD Columbanus sets of on his great missionary journey.
594 AD St Columba [Colmcille] dies on Iona.
602 AD Repose of St Comgal.
615 AD Death of Columbanus
627 AD Congal Claen becomes overking of Ulster.
628 AD Congal Claen kills the Gael King, Suibe Menn.
629 AD Ulster defeated by the Gaels at the Battle of Dun Ceithirnn.
637 AD Battle of Moira. Congal Claen, leading an army of Ulstermen together with contingents of, Picts, Anglo-Saxons [English], and Britons [Welsh] were defeated by the Gaels. Enough damage was done, however, to the Gaels to slow down their expansion in Ulster until the arrival of the Normans 500 years later.
664 AD Synod of Whitby. Bishop Colman spoke on behalf of the Scots [Ulstermen] but in the end it was decided that the Celtic church should conform to the Roman celebration of Easter.
680 AD The Bangor Antiphony was written between 680 and 691 AD.
735 AD Ulstermen suffer great defeat at the hands of the Gaels [ Ui Neill ] at Fochairt near Dundalk.
750 AD Book of Kells illuminated around this time.
802 AD The heathens burn Iona
823 AD The vikings plunder Bangor. The start of over a hundred years of raids and plunder by the vikings.
827 AD Ulstermen fight alongside the Airgailla [Hostage Givers] against the Gaels but are defeated. The Airgailla become subjects of the Gaels.
921 AD Armagh invaded by Gothfrith grandson of Imar.
936 AD The Danes of Lough Cuan [ Strangford Lough ] were slaughtered.
942 AD The son of Randalfe the Dane spoilt Dunleithglasse [ Downpatrick]. He was killed a week later by Mathew, King of Ulster.
945 AD The foreigners of Loch nEchach [ Lough Neagh ] were killed by Domnall ......... and their fleet was destroyed.

1003 AD Battle of Craeb Tulcha between the Ulaid and the Cenel Eogain where the Ulaid were defeated.
1095 AD Mael Maedoc [later called St Malachy] was born in Armagh. Ordained in 1119 he came to Bangor as Abbot in 1124. Here he took the name of Malachias, the Hebrew for 'My Angel'; a reference to the old tradition of Bangor being built on the 'Valley of the Angels".
1169 AD The first Normans arrived into Southern Ireland; invited in by the deposed King of Leinster, Dermot Mac Murchada.
1177 AD John De Courcey marches north into Ulster and captures Downpatrick. He styles himself "Master of Ulster'.
1200 AD De Courcey and the Normans kill the King of Ulster, Rory McDonnsleyve O'Heoghaa.
1205 AD De Courcey falls out of favour with King John who grants all his lands to Hugh De Lacy, creating him "Earl of Ulster". Three years later King John arrives in Ulster and lays siege to Carrickfergus. De Lacy is then banished to England.
1244 AD Around 1244, the Dominican Friary of Villa Nova [Newtownards Priory] was founded by the Savage family. Destroyed by the Gaels [O'Neill's] in 1572, it was rebuilt in 1607 by Sir Hugh Montgomery. [The existing tower and belfry are of that period]. After falling into disrepair, a small church was built on the site by the Colville family and this was used as the parish church until the building of St Mark's in 1817.
1315 AD The year after Bannockburn, Edward Bruce landed at Larne to become King of Ireland at the invitation of the Gaels [O'Neill of Tyrone]. Crowned king on 1st May 1316 after devastating Ulster. He was finally defeated and killed at the Battle of Faughart near Dundalk in 1318 AD.
1315 - 1317 AD A great famine throughout Europe.
1322 - 1325 AD A great cattle plague called the Mael Domnaig further destroyed the food sources of the people.
1328 AD The Annals recorded 'Much thunder and lightning this year, whereby much of the fruit and produce of all Ireland was ruined'.
1333 AD The last Earl of Ulster, William de Burgh was killed near Belfast.
1335 AD Severe snows in the spring killed most of the small birds.
1338 AD Most of the sheep were killed this year.
1348 AD Black Death. As with the rest of Europe, Ulster was depopulated as a result of the Black Death. About one third of the population died thus relieving any stress for land.
1366 AD The Anglo-Irish Parliament at Kilkenny enacts the Statute of Kilkenny which prohibits the assimilation of the Anglo-Irish with the native inhabitants. One of the effects of this was to ban the descendants of St Finnian, St Comgal and St Mahee from entering the monastic life at Movilla or Bangor; thus effectively taking away our heritage.
1476 AD The chief of the Tyrone O'Neill's 'attacked the castle of Belfast which he took and demolished'.
1489 AD Hugh Roe O'Donnell 'took and demolished the Castle of Belfast and then returned safe to his house loaded with immense spoils'.
1503 AD The King's deputy, Garret More Fitzgerald sacked Belfast.
1512 AD Garret More Fitzgerald sacked Belfast for a second time. He then attacked Glenarm and wasted the surrounding lands.
1513 AD Garret More Fitzgerald [Lord Deputy; Great Earl; 8th Earl of Kildare] died of gunshot wounds. His son, the 9th Earl became the Lord Deputy. He was arrested in Feb 1534 and placed in the Tower of London where he died on 2nd Sept. 1534. His son Silken Thomas was executed on 3rd February 1537 at Tilburn.
1522 AD Irish Privy Council appeals to Wolsey for 6 ships of war to cruise between Scotland and Ulster to stem the tide of Scottish settlement in Ulster. Four ships were sent.
1542 AD Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries. Movilla Abbey of Newtownards [founded by St Finian in 540 AD] fell into ruin.
1561 AD Rebellion of Shane O'Neill, caused by an internal row amongst the Gaels, over the succession of the O'Neill clan. He submitted to Queen Elizabeth I in January 1562.
1567 AD Shane O'Neill killed by the O'Donnell's.
1572 AD Queen Elizabeth's Secretary, Sir Thomas Smith made an attempt to settle North Down with Englishmen. The local O'Neill chieftain, Sir Brian McPhelim rose up in revolt and conducted a scorched earth policy against the people of North Down. He destroyed nearly every building in the area including burning the abbeys at Greyabbey , Holywood and the Priory at Newtownards
1573 AD The Earl of Essex was granted Clandeboye by Queen Elizabeth I. He sailed for Carrickfergus on 16th August . His brutal and excessive acts set the country aflame and he was forced to make a withdrawal. He was executed in 1576.
1588 AD Ships of the Spanish Armada wrecked on Ulster coasts.
1594 AD Rebellion. Following Elizabeth's replacement of the 'old English' administrators with real English; a Gaelic rebellion was launched, led by the Northern clans. [O'Neill's and O'Donnells]. Hugh O'Donnell defeated an English army at the 'Ford of the Biscuits'.
1595 AD Sir Henry Bagenal and his English forces suffer heavy losses after an ambush at Clontribret.
1597 AD Shane McBrian O'Neill of Lower Clandeboye took Belfast Castle. '... all the Englishmen in the ward were hanged', Anthony Dearinge reported, 'and their throats cut, and their bowels cutt out of their bellyes by Shane McBrian'. On 11th July, Sir John Chichester retook Belfast Castle and put all he found to the sword.
1598 AD O'Neill and O'Donnell dramatically defeat Bagenal and his force of about 5000 men at the Yellow Ford.
1601 AD Mountjoy finally breaks the Gaelic rebellion at Kinsale. His force of about 7500 men defeated O'Neill's and O'Donnell's force of 6500 which had been supplemented by a Spanish force of 3500.
1603 AD Tyrone finally submitted at the end of March. This was the end of the Nine Year War and effectively the end of the Gaels hold on Ulster.
1601 AD Mountjoy finally breaks the Gaelic rebellion at Kinsale. His force of about 7500 men defeated O'Neill's and O'Donnell's force of 6500 which had been supplemented by a Spanish force of 3500. The battle on 24th December lasts less than 3 hours.
1603 AD Tyrone finally submitted to Mountjoy on 30th March; six days after the death of Elizabeth I. This was the end of the Nine Year War and effectively the end of the Gaels hold on Ulster.
1604 AD Charter for the incorporation of the Town of Londonderry.
1605 AD For their parts in helping Conn O'Neill escape from Carrickfergus Castle and in his getting a Royal Pardon; Montgomery and Hamilton each receive one third of O'Neill's Upper Clandeboye and Ards lands.
1606 AD Sir Hugh Montgomery took up household in the remains of the priory and began the construction of the Scottish plantation town that was to be the basis of modern Newtownards.
1607 AD In what was to become known as the 'Flight of the Earls', Hugh O'Neill, Hugh O'Donnell and Conor Maguire sailed to Europe from Lough Swilly, Co. Donegal. James I declared them traitors and confiscated their lands.
1608 AD Sir Cahir O'Doherty, the last Gaelic Overlord, rebells in April and sacks Derry. He was killed in Donegal and the rebellion collapsed in June. His lands were confiscated.
1610 AD The Ulster plantation begins in Counties Armagh, Cavan, Derry, Donegal, Fermanagh, and Tyrone.
1613 AD Derry incorporated as the City of Londonderry on 29th March. Belfast was granted a charter of incorporation on 27th April..
1613 AD James I granted the charter which created the 'Borough of Newtowne in the Ardes'.
1622 AD Robert Blair, a Calvinist minister travelled from Scotland and became minister at Bangor, Co. Down
1636 AD The Market Cross of Newtownards was built to reflect the growth of the town. Bargains made in its shadow were legally binding.
1636 AD On 10th August 1636, Presbyterian ministers were summoned to the Church of Belfast for questioning. Five ministers were deposed for refusing to subscribe to Anglican doctrine. They later set sail for America on the Eagle's Wing but bad weather forced them to return.

1641 AD The native Irish assisted by the Hiberno-English rose in rebellion and attacked the settlements of Anglicans and Presbyterians. They drowned, murdered, and burned alive, men, women and children. While the stories say that they killed 200,000 people, this is probably grossly overestimated.
1642 AD Owen Roe O'Neill returns from Spain and forms his 'Catholic Army of Ulster'. A battle is fought at Battletown outside Comber, where Viscount Montgomery and his forces repel the rebels. No further action takes place in North Down.
1646 AD The Catholic Army of Ulster defeats the English at Benburb.
1649 AD Oliver Cromwell lands in Dublin. With Irish resistance on the wane he takes Drogheda by storm and then Wexford. He found on entry that the local protestants had been tortured and massacred, not only by the locals but also by the English garrisons. He gave no quarter and put to death 2600 in Drogheda and 2000 in Wexford.
1652 AD Cromwell confiscates land from those who participated in the rebellion. Plans to forcibly move Ulster-Scots from Ulster to the South drawn up but never enforced.
1660AD Charles II proclaimed King after restoration of the Monarchy in England.
1667 AD Act of Uniformity comes into force on 29th September. All holders of public office, civil and military, to take the Oath of Supremacy.
1675 AD Saddled by crippling debts after supporting the Royalist faction against Cromwell, the Montgomery's sold the Lordship and Manor of Newtown to captain Robert Colville for the sum of 10,640 pounds sterling.
1685 AD James II ascended the throne.
1686 AD Richard Talbot is appointed Earl of Tyrconnell and General of the Forces in Ireland. As part of James's Catholicisation he proceeds to replace both the English and the Protestants in the army with Catholics.
1688 AD Siege of Derry begins when apprentice boys close and lock the city gates against the forces of James II. The people inside not only suffered from attacks by canonballs and mortors; a floating boom was placed across the River Foyle to prevent supplies from reaching the walled city. Thousands died from starvation and disease.
1689 AD William and Mary ascend the Throne. James lands in Ireland. After 105 days a relief ship broke through the boom at Derry and ended the 'Siege of Derry'.
1690 AD William III lands at Carrickfergus and defeats James's forces at Battle of the Boyne. James flees to France to his benefactor, Louis XIV of France.
1691 AD James's forces suffer further defeat at the Battle of Aughrim. The war in Ireland ends with the surrender of Limerick.
1695 AD Penal legislation against Catholics and Dissenters begins. This legislation is modelled on the French penal laws against Protestants.
1702 AD William III dies and Anne becomes Queen.
1704 AD The High Church Party brings out the Test Act. Sacramental Testing for public office applicable both to Catholics and Dissenters. The entire Belfast Corporation was expelled and in Derry, 10 out of 12 were expelled.
1717 AD The beginning of the mass migration of Ulster-Scots to the American Colonies. By 1775 at least a quarter of a million people had fled and with their dependants made up 15% of the non-Indian Americans.
1719 AD The violence shown against Presbyterians in persuit of their religion, together with the rate of emigration out of Ulster by them, leads to the government enacting the Toleration Act in November. This Act finally recognised Presbyterianism . It was therefore no longer a crime to be a Presbyterian.
1737 AD The establishment of the Belfast News Letter. First edition comes out on 1st September.
1744 AD Robert Colville, under the influence of his mistress, sold Newtownards to Alexander Stewart for the sum of 42,000 pounds sterling.
1760 AD Thurot lands French force at Carrickfergus.
1765 AD The Market House - later to become the Town Hall in Newtownards, was erected by the Stewarts. Originally there was a great archway in its centre which spanned the line of the North/South street axis. The market occupied the ground floor while the upstairs held function rooms which were used by the local gentry for social events and civic matters.
1778 AD The Volunteers are formed as a 'Home Guard'.
1780 AD Conlig lead mine opened. [Conlig means "The Hound Stone" and probably refers to the standing stone on Conlig Hill]
1782 AD Ulster Volunteer companies hold a convention at Dungannon, where they adopt resolutions favouring legislative independence and relaxation of the penal laws.
1783 AD Foundation stone laid for the Belfast White Linen Hall. [Opens in September 1784]
1784 AD Belfast Volunteer companies' collection to build a new 'mass-house' leads to the erection of St Mary's Chapel. The competition for land in Armagh leads to the formation in Markethill, of the 'Peep o'Day Boys', a Protestant peasant movement.
1788 AD Belfast Reading Society formed. Moves to the Linen Hall in 1802. Becomes known as the Belfast Library and Society for Promoting Knowledge. Today generally known as the LinenHall Library.
1791 AD The Society of United Irishmen was founded in Belfast by Presbyterian radicals. Samuel McTier holds meeting in Barclay's Tavern in Crown Entry, where those present resolve 'to form ourselves into an association to unite all Irishmen to pledge ourselves to our country'.
1792 AD Samuel Neilson with Robert and William Simms launch the Northern Star; organ of the Belfast United Irishmen.
1793 AD Britain declared war on France. The volunteers were disbanded and Pitt pressurised the Irish Government to raise a largely catholic militia to defend Ireland for the Crown against possible invasion by France.
1795 AD Belfast Dissenters petition for the repeal of the Penal Laws restricting Catholics. In the same year the United Irishmen reconstituted as a secret, oath-bound society, dedicated to the establishment of complete political separation from Britain within a constitutional Monarchy. In Armagh the 'Battle of the Diamond' took place. The 'Catholic Defenders' attacked Winter's Inn at the Diamond [a crossroads near Loughgall, Co Armagh] but were routed by the locals. The locals then formed the Orange Society at the home of James Sloan, an innkeeper in Loughgall.
1796 AD In the Autumn a new force, named the 'Yoemanry' was enlisted for the government in Ulster. Being raised by the landlords from their tenants, they were chiefly Orangemen. Presbyterians remained on the whole true to the ideals of the United Irishmen.
1797 AD General Lake was given the job of disarming Ulster which held a lot of ex-Volunteer arms. This was directed mainly against the Dissenters and was done with great cruelty, particularly in Belfast where the Monaghan Militia [Catholic and Gaelic speaking] were used. By May the whole island was under martial law and many atrocities were committed by the army and the Yeomen.

1798 AD United Irish rising. Henry Joy McCracken's United Army of Ulster takes Larne and Antrim but is defeated. Henry Munro's "Hearts of Down" defeated at Ballynahinch. Both leaders were executed. It is estimated that in some towns, up to 90% of the Presbyterian men went to war on the side of the United Irishmen. It later became clear that in Ulster the Catholics didn't rally to the cause and indeed in some cases betrayed the United Irishmen to the government forces.
1801 AD The Act of Union was passed and Ireland became part of the United Kingdom.
1813 AD Four Hundred Ribbonmen attack a tavern in Garvagh where Orangemen are holding a meeting. They were repulsed.
1816 AD Three weavers are hanged in the last public executions in Belfast. Disgruntled weavers had twice attacked the home of Francis Johnston, whom they accused of paying very low wages.
1818 AD The first steam crossing between Belfast and Scotland. The ship was the 'Rob Roy' built by Ritchie and MacLaine in Belfast.
1822 AD The suicide of the 2nd Marquis of Londonderry, formerly Lord Castlereagh the distinguished former Foreign Secretary.
1823 AD Daniel O'Connell forms the Catholic Association to press for Catholic emancipation.
1825 AD The Unlawful Societies Act was passed which proscribed the Catholic Association and the Orange Society.
1831 AD Belfast Museum opens. A scheme was introduced for Province-wide primary schooling.
1839 AD Night of the Big Wind. Severe gales cause widespread destruction on January 6th.
1845 AD The Great Famine began..
1847 AD Ulster Tenant Right Association formed in Derry.
1849 AD Queens College, Belfast [later Queens University 1908] opened. An Orange procession from Rathfriland to Castlewellan was attacked at Dolly's Brae by approximately 1000 armed Ribbonmen. The Orangemen had come prepared to defend themselves and in the ensuing exchange of fire about 80 people were killed.
1857 AD The foundation stone of the Londonderry Monument [commonly called 'Scrabo Tower'] was laid on 6th March 1857. It was designed by Charles Lanyon and is a memorial to the 3rd Marquis of Londonderry who died in 1854.
1857 AD James Stephens founded the Fenian Brotherhood.
1859 AD Meeting of Catholic hierarchy, called by Archbishop Paul Cullen to discuss educational matters; they forwarded a memorial to the Lord Lieutenant seeking separate schools for the religious denominations.
1862 AD Shipbuilding firm of Harland & Wolff, founded.
1873 AD The Home Rule League was formed.
1886 AD Gladstone introduced the 1st Home Rule Bill which was defeated in the House of Commons. Rioting broke out in Belfast.
1892 AD Ulster Convention held at Belfast in June. Resolves to oppose moves to a Home Rule Parliament.
1893 AD Gladstone introduced the 2nd Home Rule Bill which was passed in the House of Commons but defeated in the House of Lords
. In the same year an anglican, Douglas Hyde co-founded the Gaelic League, which had as its aim the de-anglicization of Ireland. From this sprang Gaelic nationalism: 'Ireland not free only, but Gaelic as well; not Gaelic only, but free as well'. This effectively put another barrier between the so-called 'native Irish' and the Ulster-Scots.

1904 AD Unionist conference in Belfast calls for 'consistent and continuous political action' to resist devolution and resolves 'That an Ulster Council be formed ... to form an Ulster Union for bringing into line all local Unionist Associations in the Province of Ulster'.
1905 AD Sinn Fein [Ourselves Alone] and the Ulster Unionist Council were both formed.
1906 AD Belfast City Hall opened. Designed by Alfred Brumwell-Thomas it replaced the White Linen Hall.
1907 AD Pope Pius X issues 'Ne Temere' decree: marriage between Catholics and Protestants are null and void unless performed in a Catholic chapel; children of such marriage must be reared as Catholics.
1910 AD On 10th August, Harry Ferguson makes the first air flight of significant distance when he flies for 3 miles at Dundrum Bay, Co. Down.
1911 AD Titanic, sister ship of the Olympic, was launched by Harland and Wolff for the White Star Line [1st April]. Billed as the world's first unsinkable ship, she struck an iceberg and sank on her maiden voyage the next year. 711 of her 2201 passengers and crew were saved. The original plans of the Titanic are on display in the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum at Cultra, Co. Down.
1912 AD Almost half a million people signed a 'Solemn League and Covenant' whereby they swore to use 'all means which may be found necessary to defeat the present conspiracy to set up a Home Rule parliament in Ireland'.
1913 AD As tensions rise, the Irish Citizen Army was formed under James Connelly; the Irish Volunteers under Eoin MacNeill of the Gaelic League; and opposing them, the Ulster Volunteer Force under Sir Edward Carson and Sir James Craig.
1914 AD Curragh Mutiny. 57 out of the 70 officers at the Curragh, under the leadership of Major-General Sir Hubert Gough, decide that they will resign their commissions before they will be used to enforce Home Rule against the loyal subjects of Ulster. The government backed down and the orders were never given.
1914 AD Irish Volunteers illegally import guns into Howth, while the Clydevalley landed 35000 rifles and 2.5 million rounds of ammunition at Larne, Donaghadee and Bangor for the UVF under the direction of General Sir William Adair and Captain Wilfrid Spender. When the First World War broke out, the UVF was reorganised as the 36th (Ulster) Division. Irish Catholics enlisted in the newly formed 10th and 16th Divisions.
1916 AD While the world was at war against Germany, republicans hoping for the support of Germany, declare an "Irish" Republic and thus begins the Easter Rising. While the Easter Rising was a failure and resented by most Irish citizens; many of whom had fathers, sons, or brothers dying unsung in France - the subsequent execution of its leaders swayed Irish nationalist opinion in favour of its instigators.
> The Battle of the Somme took place and the 36th (Ulster) Division lost 5500 men in the first two days of July. This Battle is regarded as one of the bloodiest ever fought.
1917 AD De Valera [later President of Irish Republic] spoke of his belief that "if Ulster stands in the way of attainment of Irish freedom, Ulster should be coerced".
1918 AD Sinn Fein win a majority of Irish seats at Westminster [December] and set up Dail Eireann [21st Jan].
1919 AD An tOglach states that Volunteers are entitled 'morally and legally to slay British police and soldiers'. IRA units begins murder campaign.
1920 AD IRA continue murder campaign. For the period 1st January 1919 to 18th October 1920, 334 people had been killed; 339 wounded; 64 courthouses destroyed; 21 Royal Irish Constabulary Barracks destroyed and 48 damaged; and 148 private homes destroyed.
1920 AD The Government of Ireland Act partitions Ireland into Northern and Southern Ireland. Due to the continued actions of Irish republicans, the Ulster Special Constabulary is enrolled; 'A' - full-time temporary constables; 'B' - part-time constables serving locally; and 'C' - emergency reserves.
1921 AD Sir James Craig becomes the first Prime Minister of Northern Ireland [7th June]. 24th May General election in Ulster results in 40 Unionists; 6 Sinn Fein; and 6 Nationalists.
1922 AD Continued IRA atrocities leads to street violence in Ulster.
1927 AD The first greyhound track in Ulster opens at Celtic Park, Belfast.
1932 AD The Northern Ireland Parliament moves to Stormont; an impressive new building on the outskirts of Belfast.
> First Transatlantic Solo Flight by a woman, Amelia Earhart, from Harbour Grace, Newfoundland to Culmore, Co Londonderry [2206 miles in 13 hours][20th May].
1940 AD J.M. Andrews becomes Prime Minister of Northern Ireland.
1943 AD Sir Basil Brooke becomes Prime Minister of Northern Ireland.
1953 AD The Princess Victoria ferry, sailing from Stranraer to Larne, sinks of the County Down coast. 128 are killed, making it Ulster's worst sea disaster.
1963 AD Terence O'Neill becomes Prime Minister of Northern Ireland.
1968 AD Conflicting parades by both the Civil Rights Association and the Apprentice Boys were banned. The Civil Rights Association attempted to parade in defiance of the ban and when the police blocked their route, riots broke out in Derry which lasted for two days.
1969 AD People's Democracy march was attacked at Burntollet Bridge by waiting 'Protestants'. In the resulting mayhem the police were accused of not protecting the marchers. James Chichester-Clarke becomes Prime Minister of Northern Ireland. Riots broke out during the 'Marching Season' after Nationalists attacked Orange Processions in Derry, Belfast and Dungiven.
1970 AD The Social Democratic and Labour Party [SDLP] was formed.
1971 AD Brian Faulkner becomes Prime Minister of Northern Ireland. Ulster Defence Association was formed.
1972 AD The Northern Ireland Parliament was dissolved after being in existance for 52 years. William Whitelaw becomes first Secretary of State for Northern Ireland.
1973 AD Sunningdale conference suggests a Dublin role.
1974 AD A general strike was called by the Ulster Workers Council in opposition to the proposed Council of Ireland agreed at Sunningdale. Brian Faulkner resigned on 28th May 1974 and thus the Power-sharing Executive fell.
1975 AD Merlyn Rees became the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland.
1977 AD Roy Mason became the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland.
1978 AD The number of MP's returned to Westminster from Ulster was increased from 12 to 17.
1979 AD Humphrey Atkins became the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland.
1982 AD James Prior became the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland.
1983 AD James Prior announces a new Assembly.
1984 AD Douglas Hurd became the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland.
1985 AD Tom King became the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. Margaret Thatcher and Irish leader Garrett Fitzgerald signed the Anglo-Irish Agreement which set up a British-Irish intergovernmental conference with a permanent secretariat. It was met with suspicion and hostility by Unionists who regarded it as another 'Council of Ireland'.
1986 AD The Northern Ireland Assembly was dissolved.
1989 AD Peter Brooke became the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland.
1992 AD Sir Patrick Mayhew became the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland.