Bloody Sunday, internment, nationalist anger at breaking point and a failedIRA ceasefire marked a year of turbulence in the North, writes Dr Eamon Phoenix.
It was to be the most violent year of the Northern troubles. In all, 470 died including 103 British soldiers, 41 RUC or UDR and 323 civilians. Of these, 121 were assassination victims - 81 Catholics and 40 Protestants.
The year began with the beleaguered Stormont government of Brian Faulkner pursuing its disastrous policy of internment with the increasingly reluctant backing of the UK Conservative government of Edward Heath.
From the last month of 1971 Faulkner had come under remorseless pressure from Heath in private to "broaden his Cabinet" and consider phasing out internment.
In January 1972, a memo by the Stormont ministry of community relations warned Catholic alienation was "unparalleled" and increasing.
The Stormont regime, which had always depended on a degree of Catholic consent, however resentful, now faced a Catholic community, united in its hostility.
The SDLP and Nationalist representatives were boycotting Stormont and public boards. Support for the IRA was clearly increasing among the Catholic population with an Irish Government newspaper commenting that "attempting a settlement without the IRA would be like ending the Vietnam war without the Viet Cong".
Despite internment and major reverses in Belfast, the Provisional IRA bombing campaign continued in the city and along the border while the "No-go" areas in the Bogside and Creggan, established in July 1971, remained impervious to the security forces.
The march ban was renewed in January by Stormont where the Joint Security Committee, chaired by Faulkner and his junior minister, John Taylor, co-ordinated the offensive against the Republican campaign.
There were signs, however, of dissent in the Unionist family with the emergence of the UDA, William Craig's extremist Vanguard movement and Faulkner's warning of a "Protestant backlash" if there was any interference with the North's constitutional position.
By January 30th, 1972, the crisis was exacerbated by the events of Bloody Sunday when 13 civilians were shot dead by the Parachute Regiment during a civil rights march in Derry. Nationalist anger was now at breaking point and the Irish government recalled its ambassador in London in protest. Faulkner realised Stormont's days were numbered and told his private secretary, Robert Ramsay, "This is London's disaster but they will hold it against us".
Almost immediately the British government moved towards suspension of the object of nationalist resentment - the 50-year experiment in one-party rule at Stormont. In a tense meeting between Faulkner and British Ministers at Downing Street on March 22nd, 1972, Heath told the Stormont Prime Minister the UK government "had the responsibility and the blame for internment and security but were without real power", while a military solution was not possible.
Stormont was effectively abolished - though the word "prorogued" was used - on March 28th, 1972, and William Whitelaw, a Tory grandee became Secretary of State for the North. 100,000 unionists held a mass protest at Parliament Buildings the following day.
In May 1972, the Official IRA, who had wounded John Taylor in Armagh in February, called an immediate cessation of hostilities. In June, John Hume and Paddy Devlin of the SDLP urged the Provisional IRA to call a ceasefire and, as a result, two senior NIO officials secretly met Gerry Adams and Daithí Ó Conaill outside Derry on June 20th, 1972.
As a result, the IRA called the ceasefire and a six-man Provisional delegation was flown to London for secret talks with Whitelaw on July 7th. These events were overtaken, however, by the collapse of the IRA ceasefire at Lenadoon on July 9th and violence escalated once more.
July witnessed a series of sectarian murders by the UDA while on "Bloody Friday" the Provisionals set off 26 bombs in Belfast, killing 11 people and injuring 130.
The British Cabinet responded with Operation Motorman (July 31st, 1972), the largest British military operation since Suez when 12,000 troops used tanks to re-take the No-go areas in Derry. Heath had been prepared to accept 100 casualties but only two men died though IRA car bombs in nearby Claudy killed eight people that day.
The last weeks of 1972 saw a call from the SDLP for joint British-Irish sovereignty over Northern Ireland and British proposals for power sharing and an "Irish dimension".
The seeds of Sunningdale had been sown but the introduction of Diplock no-jury courts in December suggested that Westminster expected "a long haul".
Records may be subject to closure on grounds of public interest, confidentiality or the protection of individuals.
This year, of 809 files eligible for release from the Public Record Office in Belfast, 51 remain closed to the public with 17 being partially closed.
Among those closed was a file relating to the resignation of the leading Catholic public servant, Dr Maurice Hayes as chairman of the Community Relations Commission following Bloody Sunday. In the majority of cases the reason given for extended closure is the protection of individuals.
Dr Eamon Phoenix is Senior Lecturer in History at Stranmillis University College, Belfast and is the author of Northern Nationalism.