Context: Operation Banner was the operational name for the British Armed Forces’ operation in Northern Ireland from 1969 to 2007, as part of the Troubles. It was the longest continuous deployment in British military history.

Notable British incidents included:

Operation Demetrius: was a British Army operation in Northern Ireland on 9–10 August 1971, during the Troubles. It involved the mass arrest and internment (imprisonment without trial) of people suspected of being involved with the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA). Due to faulty and out-of-date intelligence, many were no longer involved in republican militancy or never had links with the IRA.

the Ballymurphy massacre: was a series of incidents between 9 and 11 August 1971, in which the 1st Battalion, Parachute Regiment of the British Army killed eleven civilians in Ballymurphy, Belfast, Northern Ireland, as part of Operation Demetrius (internment without trial). The 1972 inquests had returned an open verdict on all of the killings, but a 2021 coroner’s report found that all those killed had been innocent and that the killings were “without justification”.

Bloody Sunday: was a massacre on 30 January 1972 when British soldiers shot 26 unarmed civilians during a protest march in the Bogside area of Derry, in Northern Ireland. The soldiers were from the 1st Battalion of the Parachute Regiment (“1 Para”), the same battalion implicated in the Ballymurphy massacre several months before.

Falls Curfew: after four hours of continuous clashes, the British commander sealed off the area, which comprised 3,000 homes, and imposed a curfew which would last for 34 hours. Thousands of British troops moved into the curfew zone and carried out house-to-house searches. Many residents complained of suffering abuse at the hands of the soldiers. 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 other supplies for the locals.