Late 60's - very early 70's?
We didn't actually deploy to Northern Ireland until 15 August 1969. Flt Lt Tim Jenner (later Air Marshal Sir Tim Jenner) landed the first Wessex of 72 Squadron there in support of British troops who were deployed on 14 August.
This came after a speech by Jack Lynch, the Prime Minister of the Irish Republic who called for a United Nations peacekeeping force to be sent to the province.
300 troops from the 1st Battalion, Prince of Wales's Own Regiment of Yorkshire, occupied the centre of Londonderry.
I was about to go on exchange service to 72 Squadron and had been expecting a nice sunny sojourn in Cyprus with the UN detachment, but instead went on the first of my flying detachments to the province with 72.
I don't particularly remember Eagle patrols then, but they probably started around that time. When I was on my final tour as a 'mud marine' in 1975, I was still wearing boots DMS with puttees and carrying an SLR and the pilots of 845 NACS on HMS Hermes were still wearing white bone domes (though when I was flying my AS Wasp as a Royal Marine, I flew wearing a proper green bone dome!