1972 in Northern Ireland

Incumbents

• Monarch – Elizabeth II

  Events

• 17 January – The "West Belfast Seven" Provisional Irish Republican Army internees escape from prison ship Maidstone moored in Belfast Lough by swimming ashore.
• 30 January - Bloody Sunday: Thirteen unarmed civilians are shot dead in Derry as British paratroopers open fire on a banned civil rights march. A fourteenth, John Johnston, is also to die some months later after having been shot by a paratrooper.
• 9 February – A day of disruption takes place in Northern Ireland as people take to the streets in protest.
• 10 February – The IRA announces a ceasefire.
• 12 February – William Craig launches the Ulster Vanguard movement in Lisburn.
• 22 March – Bomb explodes near Europa Hotel, Belfast.
• 22 February – 1972 Aldershot Bombing: The Official Irish Republican Army detonates a bomb outside the headquarters of the British Army's 16th Parachute Brigade in Aldershot, England, killing 7 and injuring 17.
• 28 March – Northern Ireland Parliament suspended after Prime Minister Brian Faulkner resigns. Direct rule introduced.
• 19 April – A report by the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Widgery, into the Bloody Sunday shootings exonerates the British troops of blame because the demonstration had been illegal.
• 30 May – The Official Irish Republican Army declares a ceasefire in Northern Ireland.
• 3 June – A Protestant demonstration in Derry against the creation of "no-go" areas in the city ends in violence.
• 13–14 June – The Provisional Irish Republican Army proposes a ceasefire. The Social Democratic and Labour Party, as intermediaries, make offer to British, who accept terms.
• 9 July – End of British–IRA ceasefire.
• 21 July – Bloody Friday: Nine people die and over one hundred are injured in a series of Provisional IRA explosions in Belfast city centre.
• 31 July
• * Operation Motorman, 4:00 AM: British Army begins to regain control of the "no-go areas" established by Irish republican paramilitaries in Belfast, Derry and Newry.
• * Claudy bombing, 10:00 AM: Three car bombs in Claudy, County Londonderry, kill six immediately with three dying later in hospital. It becomes public knowledge only in 2010 that a local Catholic priest was an IRA officer believed to be involved in the bombings but his role was covered up by the authorities.
• July – Shankill Butchers begin killing Catholics.
• 10 September – Three British soldiers are killed and four injured when the IRA blows up their Saracen armoured personnel carrier at Sanaghanroe near Dungannon.
• 25 September - Darlington conference on the future of Northern Ireland opens.
• 1972 is the worst year for casualties in The Troubles, with 479 people killed and 4,876 injured.

  Arts and literature

• The Planning Order first provides for listed buildings in Northern Ireland.
• Seamus Deane's poetry Gradual Wars is published.

  Sport

Athletics

• Olympics

  Football

• Irish League
• Irish Cup
• On 13 October 1972 Derry City withdraws from senior football in the Irish League due to security problems in the Brandywell Stadium area.

  Motorcycling

• Ulster Grand Prix cancelled due to the political situation.

  Snooker

• Alex Higgins wins the World Professional Snooker Championship.

  Births

• 15 January – Derek Heasley, cricketer.
• 24 January – Éamonn Burns, Gaelic footballer.
• 12 February – Owen Nolan, ice hockey player.
• 6 March – Terry Murphy, snooker player.
• 24 April – Sinéad Morrissey, poet.
• 27 May – Maggie O'Farrell, novelist.
• 21 June – Neil Doak, cricketer and rugby player.
• 9 July – Darren Corbett, boxer.
• 6 September – Gary Arbuthnot, flautist.
• 1 November
• *Kevin Horlock, soccer player.
• *Gillian Sewell, field hockey player in Canada.
• 24 November – Iain Jenkins, soccer player.
• 28 November – Bronagh Gallagher, actress and singer.
• Full date unknown – Stephen Paul McClelland, cyclist.

  Deaths

• 22 February – Eva McGown, Official Hostess of Fairbanks and Honorary Hostess of Alaska.
• 15 April – Joe McCann, Official Irish Republican Army volunteer killed by British soldiers.