Ever since the Battle of the Boyne in 1690, between the Catholic forces of James 11 and the Protestant army of William of Orange, Ireland became a troubled land. The partition of the island in 1920 led to even more conflict. The people of the six counties separated into two groups, loyalists under the Union flag and republicans under the Irish tricolour: the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) in the Loyalist camp and the Irish Republican Army (IRA) in the Republican camp; other dissident factions were to follow. Successive peace initiative failed when one side or the other began stirring discontent in order to gain superiority. Police intervention only made the situation worse and when both sides in the conflict began targeting law officers, troops were sent in to assist in the restoration of law and order. The soldiers were welcomed at first but very soon became themselves targets when they were seen to be neutral in the conflict. Criminals, exacerbating the situation for financial gain, began to infiltrate the respective enemy camps, swearing allegiance to their cause. Hundreds of people, innocents among them, died in the conflict and damage to infrastructure, both in the Province and on the British mainland as well as British military bases in Germany, was putting increasing strain of the public purse. A solution had to be found. On his retirement from military service, after two eventful tours of the Province, SAS Major Cedric (Nosey) Parker formulated a plan to resolve the conflict once and for all. He went into politics and won a by-election, replacing his deceased predecessor, and was appointed defence spokesman for the Liberal Democrats who, on winning the next general election in coalition with the Conservative party, implemented Parker's radical plan of action codenamed 'Retribution'.