The long road to N. Irish peace pact
 BELFAST, May 23 (Reuters) - Voters on both sides of the Irish border have strongly endorsed a Northern Ireland peace deal, designed to end a Protestant-Catholic conflict that has killed some 3,600 people in the past three decades.
Following is a chronology of developments in British-ruled Northern Ireland since the start of the bloodshed.
1968: Northern Ireland's Roman Catholic minority launch civil rights campaign for better deal from Protestants. Riots follow.
1969: British army sent to Northern Ireland. Worst clashes in 50 years despite civil rights reforms.
1972: British troops kill 14 Catholic protesters on ``Bloody Sunday'' in Londonderry. Irish Republican Army (IRA) car bombs kill 11 in Belfast.
1972: British government suspends Protestant-dominated administration based in Stormont, east Belfast, and introduces direct rule.
1974: Northern Ireland assembly introduced in January and 78 members are elected.
Executive administration collapses in May after strike by workers from Protestant majority against power-sharing. Direct rule resumes. Twenty-one people killed in IRA bombing of two Birmingham bars.
1976: IRA assassinates British ambassador to Dublin, Christopher Ewart-Biggs.
1979: IRA steps up attacks on prominent Britons, killing ambassador to Netherlands, Sir Richard Sykes, the Conservative party spokesman on Northern Ireland, Airey Neave, and Lord Mountbatten, cousin of Queen Elizabeth, in separate incidents.
1981: Ten IRA prisoners starve to death in hunger strike designed to secure political prisoner status.
1982: Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) republican guerrillas bomb Ballykelly pub, killing 17 people. New Northern Ireland assembly elected but boycotted by Catholics.
1984: IRA bomb at British Conservative party conference kills five. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher escapes injury.
1985: Anglo-Irish agreement gives Dublin government consultative voice in daily running of Northern Ireland, prompting Protestant demonstrations.
1987: Eight IRA gunmen killed in ambush by British Special Air Service commandos. IRA bomb kills 11 at Enniskillen war memorial ceremony.
1989: Eleven killed in IRA bomb at marines music school in southern England.
1991: IRA mortar attack on 10 Downing Street. No one injured.
1992: IRA car bomb in City of London financial district kills three and injures 91.
1993: IRA bombs busy shopping street in Protestant part of Belfast, killing 10. Protestant extremists kill seven Halloween revellers in revenge.
In peace-seeking Anglo-Irish Downing Street Declaration in December, Britain says it would not block an end to British rule if a majority wanted it, and offers Sinn Fein republicans a seat at peace talks if IRA violence ends.
1994: IRA announces ceasefire in September, with pro-British ``Loyalist'' guerrillas following suit weeks later. British officials hold first open meeting with Sinn Fein in more than 70 years.
1995: Britain ends 23-year ban on ministerial talks with Sinn Fein, but within weeks Sinn Fein breaks off discussions. In November, British and Irish governments set February 1996 as target date for start of all-party talks and establishing commission to study handover of all guerrilla weapons.
1996: Former U.S. senator George Mitchell proposes talks alongside phased surrender of guerrilla weapons. Major, enraging republicans, proposes elections in Northern Ireland to pave way for talks.
The IRA abandons its ceasefire in February by exploding a bomb in east London's Docklands district, killing two people and injuring 100.
Multi-party talks on the future of Northern Ireland begin in Belfast in June, but Sinn Fein is excluded because of IRA violence. IRA detonates bomb in Manchester shopping centre, injuring 200.
1997: IRA announces ``unequivocal'' ceasefire in July, two months after Tony Blair's Labour party sweeps John Major's Conservatives from office. Six weeks later Sinn Fein joins peace talks for first time.
1998: British government announces independent judicial inquiry into Bloody Sunday killings of 1972.
Eighteen people killed over three months in spate of tit-for-tat violence between Protestant and Republican splinter guerrilla groups outside the ceasefires. Sinn Fein and pro-British UDP political party briefly suspended from peace talks because of attacks allegedly involving their guerrilla allies.
On April 10, Good Friday, a deal is struck at talks between the British and Irish governments and eight political parties.
Extremist splinter groups persist with sporadic killings and several bombs are defused on both sides of the border in the run-up to referendums on the accord on May 22.
Four convicted IRA guerrillas are released from jail for 24 hours to attend a Sinn Fein conference in Dublin on May 10 that approves the peace deal. They get a hero's welcome, to the fury of Northern Irish Protestants.
Four days later, 1,000 pro-British ``loyalists'' give a similarly rapturous reception to Michael Stone, a Protestant guerrilla paroled for four days to bolster support for the pact.
On May 22, voters flocked to polling stations north and south of the Irish border.
On May 23, final results in Northern Ireland showed 71.12 percent in favour of the peace agreement. With three-quarters of the Republic of Ireland votes counted, 94.55 percent backed the deal.
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