1972 in Northern Ireland

• Monarch – Elizabeth II
• Governor - The Lord Grey of Naunton
• Prime Minister - Brian Faulkner (Until 30 March)
• Secretary of State - William Whitelaw (from 24 March)

• 17 January – The "West Belfast Seven" Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) internees escape from prison ship Maidstone moored in Belfast Lough by swimming ashore.[1]
• 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.[2]
• 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.[3]
• 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.[4]
• 30 May – The Official Irish Republican Army declares a ceasefire in Northern Ireland.[5]
• 3 June – A Protestant demonstration in Derry against the creation of "no-go" areas in the city ends in violence.[6]
• 13–14 June – The Provisional Irish Republican Army proposes a ceasefire. The Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP), as intermediaries, make offer to British, who accept terms.[3]
• 9 July – End of British–IRA ceasefire.[3]
• 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 ("Free Derry") and Newry.[7]
  • Claudy bombing ("Bloody Monday"), 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.[8]
• July – Shankill Butchers begin killing Catholics.[9]
• 10 September – Three British soldiers are killed and four injured when the IRA blows up their Saracen armoured personnel carrier at Sanaghanroe near Dungannon.[10]
• 25 September - Darlington conference on the future of Northern Ireland opens.

28th of December - Belturbet Co Cavan Geraldine O'Reilly 15 from Cavan and Patrick Stanley 16 from Offaly murdered by an unclaimed bomb.

• 1972 is the worst year for casualties in The Troubles, with 479 people killed (including 130 British soldiers) and 4,876 injured.[10]

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

• 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.

• 22 February – Eva McGown, Official Hostess of Fairbanks and Honorary Hostess of Alaska (born 1883).
• 15 April – Joe McCann, Official Irish Republican Army volunteer killed by British soldiers (born 1947).

• 1972 in Scotland
• 1972 in Wales