When I was 16 my father was shot dead by paramilitary gunmen. He was one of thousands of innocent people killed during the Troubles in a thirty-year civil conflict that turned this place into a war zone. Patrick Kielty, My Dad, The Peace Deal and Me, BBC 2018
In 1998 ten years after my dad was killed a deal known as the Good Friday Agreement brought an end to the conflict. Hundreds of paramilitary prisoners were released including my father’s killers. ibid.
The UDF were involved in over 400 sectarian murders during the troubles including my dad’s. ibid.
‘The entire ownership of Ireland, moral and material, up to the sun and down the centre, is vested of right in the people of Ireland.’ Hidden Agenda 1990 starring Frances McDormand & Brian Cox & Brad Dourif & Maurice Roeves & Ian McElhinney & Mai Zetterling & Michelle Fairley et al, director Ken Loach, James Fintan Lalor
Were you arrested under Section 12? Have you any idea why? ibid. Paul inquiry of detainee
I’m glad we’re leaving tomorrow. Belfast reminds me of Chile. That’s the way it feels. ibid. Ingrid to Paul
The shot that killed the Yank was fired at two metres. ibid. Peter
If the great British public knew half of what goes on in Northern Ireland, they wouldn’t sleep in their beds. ibid. Jimmy
Pressure came from the CIA to get rid of the Labour government. They fed information to MI5 claiming that Prime Minister Wilson was a KGB agent. It was a joint CIA/MI5 operation supported by others in Whitehall. Yeah, the whole bag of dirty ticks was used: smears, break-ins, burglaries, phone-tapping, blackmail, disinformation. ibid. Harris
But it’s always been assumed that Wilson was as disappointed as everyone else at the Sunningdale’s demise. That is until now. Our document known as the Doomsday Document seems to suggest that this was not necessarily so. Sunningdale offered the people of Northern Ireland a democratic way out of daily murders, bombings and intimidation. Yet the British government seemed content to sit back and watch as the strike slowly killed it. Document: The Doomsday Document, BBC Radio 4 2008
Never before no matter how bad the violence had got had a British government talked of conceding control of Northern Ireland. Yet here is Harold Wilson doing just that. ibid.
On January 30th 1972 thirteen people died when paratroopers opened fire during the civil rights march in Londonderry. The tragic events of Bloody Sunday had been mired in controversy for almost 40 years. At the time the army claimed they came under sustained fire, that some of the dead were carrying nail bombs and were members of the IRA. Document: Propaganda in Northern Ireland, BBC Radio 4 2010
How was it that an army spokesman could make such categoric claims? Was this an example of the truth being lost in a fog of war? Or was it a more sustained attempt at media manipulation in those early days of the struggles? ibid.
Later on these black propaganda activities became increasingly outlandish, sometimes veering on the comical. ibid.
‘The army rolled into all the Catholic areas’ … ‘The people who are to protect us were in fact taking sides against us’ … It’s a massacre they deny. A massacre in which eleven people died. A massacre involving members of Britain’s elite parachute regiment. The same regiment which less than six months later shot dead thirteen unarmed people on Bloody Sunday. But unlike Bloody Sunday this massacre happened away from the cameras and away from the eyes of the world. Massacre at Ballymurphy, Channel 4 2018
In 1969 before the Troubles began Ballymurphy was one of the poorest housing estates in Belfast, widely seen as a Catholic ghetto. ibid.
In reality the army had not been sent in to separate the Catholics and the Protestants; they were sent in because the authorities had lost control. ibid.
9th August 1971, the first day of Internment: ‘The army rolled into all the Catholic areas and raided houses of a list. People were just dragged from their beds … There was whole families arrested and held in Internment.’ ibid.
600 paratroopers descended on Ballymurphy that day. Witnesses describe raids, assaults and indiscriminate firing of rubber bullets and live ammunition. ibid.
While details of Group 13’s work in Northern Ireland remains classified, some black ops carried out in the province have now been exposed. Spy Secrets: Playing Dirty, 2003
Steak-knife gave British Intelligence details of a great many terrorist operations leading to a succession of arrests. ibid.
And what was left after the traumatic convulsions of post-war nationalism was a bitter divided Ireland: partition between the Irish Free State and Northern Ireland. This was an invented mini-state nominally run from Belfast but in reality dependant on London for funding and security. David Reynolds, Long Shadow III, BBC 2018
In 1998 the Good Friday Agreement was signed, brokering a peace deal between Republicans and Unionists in Northern Ireland. Nearly a decade later Al Jazeera visited Belfast to explore ongoing divisions in the city. Walls of Shame: Northern Ireland’s Troubles, Al Jazeera 2016/2007
The modern history of Northern Ireland has been dominated by one thing: the Troubles. ibid.
What Northern Ireland has now is not so much peace as an absence of conflict. ibid.
Today there are believed to be 41 deliberate barriers across Belfast. ibid.
Northern Ireland has a troubled history. For 30 years Loyalists, mainly Protestants, fought to keep Northern Ireland in the United Kingdom. Republicans, mainly Catholics, fought for a united Ireland. Nearly 4,000 people were killed. In 1998 the Good Friday Peace Agreement was signed, and what is known as the Troubles came to an end. Ireland’s Brexit Troubles, TRT World 2018
As the UK & EU figure out how to finalise that divorce, what to do with Northern Ireland becomes one of their most pressing problems. ibid.
Both sides turned to paramilitary groups and terrorist tactics, killing thousands of innocent civilians. ibid.
A majority of Protestants in Northern Ireland voted to leave the EU. ibid.
The Irish border and the people who live and work here: why has it become such a stumbling block for Brexit? And could we see a return to violence? Tonight: The Border Blocking Brexit, ITV 2019
The border became not just open but effectively invisible. ibid.
27 August 1979: 2,154 total deaths. ibid.
In 2010 Dolours Price, a former member of the IRA, gave a series of interviews to journalist Ed Moloney. I, Dolours, Netflix 2018, caption
My father spent seven years altogether interned in different prisons but he never was charged. ibid. Dolours
In 1921, after a bloody IRA campaign, most of Ireland won independence from Britain. But in the north of Ireland, six counties stayed loyal to the Crown, its largely Protestant population determined to stay British. Within the borders of the new Northern Ireland, a resentful Catholic minority was kept in place by violence and discrimination. A much smaller number of Catholics gave support to the IRA. ibid. captions
We were a very angry people … When they signed away the six counties, they actually signed us away. ibid. Dolours
By the late 1960s the world was changing. A new generation of Catholics began to demand change. They took to the streets to demand voting rights, jobs and houses. Dolours and her sister Marian became active in ‘The People’s Democracy’. ibid. captions
The northern state was rotten. ibid. Dolours
By 1969 Northern Ireland was descending into chaos. In Belfast, Loyalist gangs attacked and burned out Catholic homes. ibid. captions
Within months of arriving, British troops were ordered to raid Catholic areas in search of IRA weapons. ibid.
In 1973 after a two-month trial Dolours Price and her sister Marian were convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment. Dolours, Marian and two other members of the bombing team began a hunger strike demanding to be moved to a prison in Northern Ireland. ibid.
Northern Ireland, 1975: Many dancehalls may have to close down and that’s because of what happened to the most popular group in Ireland. Miami Showband Massacre, news, Netflix 2012
Showband in Murder Trap. ibid. newspaper headline
The venue was the Castle Ballroom in Banbridge … in Northern Ireland. We got to the gig and everything was as normal. ibid. band member
Massacred: Pop Band in UVF Ambush ibid. newspaper headline
And it’s my belief that Robin Jackson [UVF local leader aka The Jackal] was involved in the Miami Showband attack. ibid. investigator
There was collusion as part of a system. ibid. band’s bassist investigates
The cradle of Northern Ireland’s troubles, a place where even the name is disputed: Protestants call it Londonderry, Catholics call it Derry. 50 years ago it was a battleground between Catholic citizens and the forces of the state. After three days of violence the British army was sent in to end the crisis. The Troubles: A Secret History I, BBC 2019
The army’s stay was meant to be short but that’s not how it worked out. The conflict would run across four decades leaving lasting scars on Ireland and Britain, on places and especially on people. ibid.
At the outbreak of the Troubles he [Paisley] was considered a dangerous Protestant dissident. ibid.
This is a Secret History of the Troubles. ibid.
‘In Belfast the prime minister of Northern Ireland announced the outlawing of the so-called quasi-fascist organisation, the Ulster Volunteer Force.’ ibid. BBC television