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The Northern Ireland Government requested that the British Government deploy the British Army in Northern Ireland to restore order and to prevent sectarian attacks on Catholics. The British Army did attempt to prevent the sectarian violence. The Catholics who did not trust the RUC initially welcomed the Army interventiion. Photographs show the Castholic residents offering the soldiers tea and sandwiches. Soon the relationship betweeen the Catholics and the British soldiers deteriorated. A major factor was the Falls Curfew in which the Army, an effort to disarm Republican paramilitaries (July 1970). The Amy cordined off the Lower Falls area of Belfast. The Republicans responmded with gunfire. The result was hours of gunfire beteen the Army and mostly the Official IRA. Four civilins were killed and the w3hole area engulfed in tear gas. Soon both IRA factions were trgetting the British soldiers. The Northrrn Ireland govrnment responded, introduced internment without trial. Some 2,000 people were interned (1971-75). They included Republicans (90 percent) and Loyalists (10 percent). The initial arress were all Republicans. The Republicans and even people who oppose violence like the SDLP walked out of the Stormont Parliament. They organized a rent and rate strike. Republicans depicted the 25 years armed campaign that ensued as defensive and retalitory. Catholics began viewing the Army as favoring the Protestants. This was probably inevitable as the Protestants were Unionists and the Catholics largely nationalists. Some sources report Army heavy-handedness. It is undeniable that the IRA Provisionls from the beginning to connect what became the Troubles as a continution of the Irish War of Independence.
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