"The Troubles- trace their origins 200 years back to the reign of King Henry VIII, a time when English Protestantism was introduced to the largely Catholic population of Ireland. Strains of enmity arose between the two religious factions that populated Ireland at the time "the Protestant majority in the north, and the Catholic people native to the southern regions. The tensions between the closely residing religious people, erupted in 1690 in the Battle of Boyne, where William of Orange led the Protestants to victory over King James II, bringing much of Ireland into the hands of the non-Catholics.
The religious acrimony between the two spiritual divisions has only amounted into greater proportions as time has elapsed. The Catholic south of Ireland declared its independence from Britain in 1949, severing all ties with the Protestant Northern Ireland that remained a part of the British Commonwealth, and subsequently, forming the Republic of Ireland. .
However, despite the political division achieved by the Catholics, the Catholic minority that still resides in the predominantly Protestant region of Northern Ireland and that remain unsatisfied with only an Irish Republic that does not cover the entire island, still seek for an independent and united Ireland, whereas the Protestants stand firm in their views to remain a part of the United Kingdom. Therein, within the diminutive region of Northern Ireland, the opposing religious sects have chosen to pursue and continue the medieval war of the conflicting faiths through commando and terrorist activities that have made Northern Ireland perhaps the bloodiest and most violent battleground of the 20th Century. .
Violent hostility raged throughout the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland through the last half the 20th Century, but an uneasy, delicate peace agreement was established in the Good Friday Agreement in the year of 1998.
