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The Falls Curfew, also called the Battle of the Falls (or Lower Falls), was a British Army operation during 3–5 July 1970 in the Falls district of Belfast, Northern Ireland. The operation began as a search for weapons in the staunchly Irish nationalist district. As the search ended, local youths attacked the British soldiers with stones and petrol bombs and the soldiers responded with CS gas. This quickly developed into gun battles between British soldiers and the Official Irish Republican Army (OIRA). After four hours of continuous clashes, the British commander sealed off the area—comprising 3,000 homes—and imposed a curfew which would last for 36 hours. Thousands of British troops moved into the curfew zone and carried out house-to-house searches for weapons, while coming under intermittent attack from the IRA and rioters. The searches caused much destruction and a large amount of CS gas was fired into the area. On 5 July, the curfew was brought to an end when thousands of women and children from Andersonstown marched into the curfew zone with food and groceries for the locals. During the operation, four civilians were killed by the British Army, at least 78 people were wounded and 337 people were arrested. 18 soldiers were also wounded. A large number of weapons and ammunition was also captured, with the army admitting afterwards that some looting had taken place.〔(The Falls Curfew ), books.google.dk; accessed 23 October 2015.〕 ==Background== The Northern Ireland riots of August 1969 marked the beginning of the Troubles. In Belfast, Catholic Irish nationalists clashed with Protestant Ulster loyalists and the mainly-Protestant Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC), Northern Ireland’s police force. Hundreds of Catholic homes and businesses were burnt out and more than 1,000 families, mostly Catholics, were forced to flee.〔Coogan, Tim Pat. ''The Troubles: Ireland's Ordeal and the Search for Peace''. Palgrave Macmillan, 2002. p.91〕 The Irish Republican Army (IRA) had few weapons or members and was unable to fully defend the Catholic areas. The rioting ended with the deployment of British troops. In December 1969, the IRA split into the 'Official' IRA and 'Provisional' IRA—with the 'Provisionals' vowing to defend Catholic areas in future. A week before the Falls Curfew, on Saturday 27 June 1970, there was severe rioting in Belfast following marches by the Protestant/Unionist Orange Order. At the Short Strand—a Catholic enclave in a Protestant part of the city—the Provisional IRA fought a five-hour gun battle with loyalists (see Battle of St Matthew's). Three people were killed and the loyalists withdrew. The Provisional IRA presented itself as having successfully defended a vulnerable Catholic enclave from armed loyalist mobs.〔Hennessey, Thomas. ''The evolution of the Troubles, 1970-72''. Irish Academic Press, 2007. p.35〕〔Shanahan, Timothy (2009). ''The Provisional Irish Republican Army and the morality of terrorism''. Edinburgh University Press, pp. 24–25.〕〔Barry McCaffrey (25 June 2010). "Battle of Short Strand". ''The Irish News''. pp. 14–17.〕 Meanwhile, the Official IRA arranged for a large number of weapons to be brought into the mainly nationalist and Catholic Lower Falls area for distribution. The area was a stronghold of the Official IRA. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Falls Curfew」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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