Women protesting about conditions in English jails, Belfast, Northern Ireland, 1978

‘In 2020, I realised that the following year would be the 100th anniversary of the creation of the Northern Ireland border, in many respects the start of the Troubles. I started digging through my archives and found some work I was interested in and in which others could find some value. This is it’ The Troubles by Chris Steele-Perkins is published by Bluecoat Press. All images © Chris Steele-Perkins

Children playing, probably Derry, 1978

‘I came to Belfast in 1978 as part of a project looking at inner-city poverty in the UK. Three photographers – Nicholas Battye, Paul Trevor and myself, worked as the Exit Group’

Rioters stoning RUC vehicle at the top of Leeson Street, Belfast, 1978

‘It was a time of great poverty and rising racism. Street riots and police violence were becoming a common occurrence in many of the cities in the UK, and it seemed to us that these problems could easily escalate into a similar chaos as that which existed in Northern Ireland: a civil war with the army deployed in the streets’

Flyposters, Derry, Northern Ireland, 1979

‘Our analysis was simplistic: the Troubles were not driven by religion with the Catholics v the Protestants. The Catholics were the natural majority of Ireland, a country separate from England, and English rule over Ireland was a colonial imposition that happened to be Protestant’

Marching band, Derry, Northern Ireland, 1978

‘Protestants were a minority in Ireland until an artificial Protestant state was created in the north by the process of gerrymandering: English rule was maintained through this artificially created, Protestant majority state called Northern Ireland’

Republican funeral, Catholic west Belfast, 1978

‘I intended to cover the situation from the standpoint of the underdog, the downtrodden: I was not neutral and was not interested in capturing it so’

Community centre disco, Catholic west Belfast, 1978

‘I was interested in how life was lived in its various facets, not just the rioting and the military occupation, though I couldn’t ignore that as it was so prevalent. But also the leisure, the entertainment, the homes, the fun, the funerals and the community’

Youth with a stone during a riot at the top of Leeson Street, west Belfast, 1978

‘I was not there to illustrate a thesis but to enter the unknown, interacting and responding, and attempting to remain honest’

Soldier pointing rifle, bottom of Clonard Street, Belfast, 1978

‘I take photographs, and photos explain nothing; they describe. These photographs go some way towards describing a Catholic community under attack by a largely Protestant community backed up by the British state’

Kids learning martial arts in a local gym, Catholic Derry, 1978

‘The work that I did for the Exit group was quite extensive. I stuck with the urban Catholic community in Belfast and Derry and continued to come back’

Woman with kids, Northern Ireland, 1978

‘I began to see that my work in Northern Ireland had always been a celebration of the resilience and unyielding way that the Catholic community resisted’

You are now entering Free Derry, 1978

‘I felt respect for this robust spirit of endurance, tempered by humour’

Republican funeral, Catholic west Belfast, 1978

‘Despite the sectarian killings, despite the illegal process of internment, they stood firm’