Nineteen people died at the hands of the Shankill Butchers ... They used the Troubles for what they did. ibid.
All of the convicted Shankill Butchers have been released from jail. ibid.
‘The barbarism savours of Jack the Ripper butchery.’ ibid. Thomas Passmore, ex Orange Order leader
On 15th August 1998 Omagh in Northern Island was hit by one of the worst single atrocities ever to hit the province. A five-hundred pound bomb exploded in a small market town on a busy Saturday afternoon. Twenty-nine people and two unborn children were murdered when an incorrect warning was given. Crimes that Shook Britain s3e2: Omagh Bombing, CI 2012
The Real IRA had claimed responsibility but no individuals were held accountable. ibid.
Why had such crucial evidence not been shared? ibid.
250 victims have been injured. ibid.
One man Colin Murphy is on trial. ibid.
The Ombudsman also found some of the Special Branch officers uncooperative. ibid.
Five years later his [Murphy] sentence would be quashed altogether. ibid.
The families sued those responsible. ibid.
Not one criminal conviction has yet been successful. ibid.
‘The children lived in fear. The family was broken up. And they couldn’t find their mother.’ The Disappeared, witness, BBC 2013
The explosion of violence from 1969 forced thousands out of their homes in Belfast. ibid.
The practice of disappearing inconvenient bodies in the Irish countryside goes back to the 1920s and the Irish War of Independence. ibid.
Nobody ever said it would be easy – and that was an understatement. George Mitchell, re peace talks
I am pleased to announce that the two governments and the political parties in Northern Ireland have reached agreement. George Mitchell
In coming to that agreement, my party had a clear philosophy throughout. In Northern Ireland we should have institutions that respected the differences of the people and that gave no victory to either side. John Hume
They have voted to take the gun out of politics. Mo Mowlam
The Troubles refers to a violent thirty-year conflict that began with a civil rights march in Londonderry on 5 October 1968 and concluded with the Good Friday Agreement on 10 April 1998. At the heart of the conflict lay the constitutional status of Northern Ireland.
The goal of the unionist and overwhelmingly Protestant majority was to remain part of the United Kingdom. The goal of the nationalist and republican, almost exclusively Catholic, minority was to become part of the Republic of Ireland.
This was a territorial conflict, not a religious one. At its heart lay two mutually exclusive visions of national identity and national belonging. The principal difference between 1968 and 1998 is that the people and organisations pursuing these rival futures eventually resolved to do so through peaceful and democratic means. This ascendancy of politics over violence was not easily achieved.
During the Troubles, the scale of the killings perpetrated by all sides – republican and loyalist paramilitaries and the security forces – eventually exceeded 3,600. As many as 50,000 people were physically maimed or injured, with countless others psychologically damaged by the conflict, a legacy that continues to shape the post-1998 period. BBC online article, ‘The Troubles’
What were once only hopes for the future have now come to pass; it is almost exactly 13 years since the overwhelming majority of people in Ireland and Northern Ireland voted in favour of the agreement signed on Good Friday 1998, paving the way for Northern Ireland to become the exciting and inspirational place that it is today. Elizabeth II
The place is still afflicted by 1,500 sectarian incidents annually. Some of the backstreets continue to resound with the noise of bricks hurled through windows; some Orange halls and Catholic premises on country roads are being damaged by arsonists, or defaced by hooligans who scrawl primitive messages of hate on their walls.
So although the war is over the conflict is not. The more historically-minded can point out that sectarianism long pre-dated the last troubles, and that the recent decades of conflict have of course added to the reservoirs of historical grievance, hurt and bitterness. Sadly, scores of tall peacelines continue to criss-cross Belfast; more sadly still, many of those who live in their shadow are quite content they should stay in place, certainly for the moment. While few actually approve of these towering symbols of division they have at least settled many localised territorial disputes: the concrete and metal of the walls dictate who lives where. The Independent online article 14th September 2009, ‘The Lingering Sectarian Troubles of Northern Ireland’
We will march peacefully this Sunday. And march and march again. Until Unionist rule is ended in this province and a new system based on civil rights for all is put in its place. Bloody Sunday 2002 starring James Nesbitt & Simon Mann & Tim Pigott-Smith & Nicholas Farrell & Allan Gildea & Gerard Crossan & Mary Moulds & Carmel McCallion & David Clayton Rogers et al, director Paul Greengrass, MP
30th January 1972 ... You’d better leave me here. You be careful tomorrow. ibid. her to him
It’s just a Sunday afternoon stroll. Don’t worry about it. ibid. MP to mum & dad
We’ve got to teach these people a lesson. ibid. Army dude
We have a cordon of snipers. ibid.
You have my full support. ibid. Army chief
Just get out there and kick some arse. ibid. other Army dude
The choice is about how the achieve it: Violence or non-violence ... We have to show them that non-violence works. ibid. army medium cheese
Civil rights isn’t a soft option when the bricks are flying. ibid.
We are part of a worldwide movement for civil freedoms. ibid. Bernadette Devlin
Go and get them, One Para. And good luck. ibid. Army chief
I saw you shoot civvies. ibid. soldier
We’ve just fired a fucking horrendous amount of ammunition. And we’ve got to know why. ibid. army chief
Twenty-seven people were shot in this city. ibid. MP
This is our Sharpeville. ibid.
You will reap a whirlwind. ibid.
Two days after Bloody Sunday the British Government set up an Inquiry under Lord Chief Justice Widgery. ibid.
He concluded there was a ‘strong suspicion’ some victims had been handling weapons and the army’s actions were justified. ibid.
When I told the people of Northern Ireland that I was an atheist, a woman in the audience stood up and said, ‘Yes, but is it the God of the Catholics or the God of the Protestants in whom you don’t believe?’ Quentin Crisp, attributions & variations
In 1971 the British government tried to crush the IRA by bringing in a law called Internment. This meant the government could detain suspected terrorists without charge. But it completely backfired. Taking Liberties, 2007
20 years ago this week in Londonderry paratroopers shot dead 13 people who were taking part in a civil rights march. The soldiers said they were gunmen and bombers; the community said they were innocent civilians. Peter Taylor, Inside Story: Remember Bloody Sunday, BBC 1992
People from all walks of life came along. ibid.
The army had a secret plan ordered at the highest level. ibid.
20 years ago the IRA and loyalist paramilitaries declared an end to the so-called war that claimed the lives of more than 3,000 people. Their historic ceasefires marked the start of the road to peace. Peter Taylor, Who Won the War? BBC 2014
Catholics were second-class citizens, victims of blatant discrimination. ibid.
Most loyalists feel alienated too. ibid.
The Good Friday Agreement in 1998 paved the road from war to peace. ibid.
The Irish Question and the resolution of that question that I’ve been reporting for nearly fifty years, it’s part of my DNA, it’s been part of my life. Peter Taylor, My Journey Through the Troubles, BBC 2019
A lot of people forget where we’ve come from. ibid.
In August 1969 British troops were deployed to Northern Ireland. It marked a watershed in the history of the Troubles. Before the end of January 1972 over 200 people had been killed in the violence. ibid. captions
They [British army] hated the enemy. They, not all of them, hated the Catholic community that they believed supported and harboured the IRA. Their hatred of the enemy was visceral. ibid.