evidence: Rooted in the political and economic grievances formalized by the partition, the Troubles evolved into a low-level but highly violent conflict between the British state, Catholic Republicans, and Protestant Loyalists. Not purely a religious or identity conflict, the Troubles were animated by the question of Northern Ireland’s constitutional status as a function of many Catholics’ desire for equal political and economic rights. In the absence of those rights, Republicans made it their goal to achieve Northern Ireland’s reunification with Ireland, while Loyalists strove to ensure Northern Ireland remained in the UK. Republican paramilitaries defended Catholic areas and conducted guerrilla campaigns against the state. Loyalist paramilitaries defended loyalist areas and sought to combat Republicanism, purportedly in defense of the state. [...] 197 Marie Therese Fay, Mike Morrissey, and Marie Smyth, Mapping Troubles-Related Deaths in Northern Ireland, 1969–1998 (Incore: Derry Londonderry, 1998); Bernadette C. Hayes and Ian McAllister, "Public Support for Political Violence and Paramilitarism in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland," Terrorism and Political Violence 17 (2005): 599–617, https://www.abdn.ac.uk/staffpages/uploads/soc207/polviolence.pdf.