Northern Ireland
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A short History of The war
A coffin or a prison cell. Those were the two fates that fighters believed awaited them in Northern Ireland’s long and brutal sectarian conflict.
More than 3,500 people died during the Troubles, the four-decade battle between Irish nationalists wanting to end British rule and Protestants loyal to the British crown. Paramilitary groups like the Provisional Irish Republican Army waged a guerrilla war in Belfast’s streets, with bombs and bullets claiming the lives of combatants and innocent civilians alike. Tens of thousands of people were sentenced to prison for their actions during the conflict. Some of them were given life sentences for vicious and brutal crimes.
The Good Friday Agreement in 1998 brought a nominal end to the conflict after decades of battle. As an effort to draw a line under the past, the treaty released all those still imprisoned for conflict-related crimes. Today, those fighters who once prepared to face death in jail or in the streets must learn to live alongside one another in peace.
Survival, it turns out, comes with its own struggles. The men and women are beset by psychological trauma, poverty and crippling rates of alcoholism. Those with criminal convictions associated with the conflict have struggled with unemployment and the prejudices of a society where many still view them as terrorists and murderers.
Nearly two decades later, some on both sides are willing to talk — albeit guardedly, given that they could still face conviction for crimes committed but not tried. They provide a rare window into the lives of people labeled as terrorists, and the minds of those willing to kill to achieve their political goals.
At a time when it feels like Britain and the US are waging an endless war on terror, Northern Ireland is a reminder that all wars end eventually. Even terrorists get older.
More than 3,500 people died during the Troubles, the four-decade battle between Irish nationalists wanting to end British rule and Protestants loyal to the British crown. Paramilitary groups like the Provisional Irish Republican Army waged a guerrilla war in Belfast’s streets, with bombs and bullets claiming the lives of combatants and innocent civilians alike. Tens of thousands of people were sentenced to prison for their actions during the conflict. Some of them were given life sentences for vicious and brutal crimes.
The Good Friday Agreement in 1998 brought a nominal end to the conflict after decades of battle. As an effort to draw a line under the past, the treaty released all those still imprisoned for conflict-related crimes. Today, those fighters who once prepared to face death in jail or in the streets must learn to live alongside one another in peace.
Survival, it turns out, comes with its own struggles. The men and women are beset by psychological trauma, poverty and crippling rates of alcoholism. Those with criminal convictions associated with the conflict have struggled with unemployment and the prejudices of a society where many still view them as terrorists and murderers.
Nearly two decades later, some on both sides are willing to talk — albeit guardedly, given that they could still face conviction for crimes committed but not tried. They provide a rare window into the lives of people labeled as terrorists, and the minds of those willing to kill to achieve their political goals.
At a time when it feels like Britain and the US are waging an endless war on terror, Northern Ireland is a reminder that all wars end eventually. Even terrorists get older.
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Northern Ireland
Images in My Mind (written by Billy Little) 5th October 2012
I placed a rose at your grave today
I closed my eyes and cried
I looked in my wallet at your photo
It should have been me that had died
People see me and think that I`m fine
They can`t see inside my head
They will never know how I feel
Always wishing that I was dead
I awake from the same nightmare
I am sweating and hiding under the bed
I am seeing the same visions in my mind
Which are forever instilled inside my head
My mind is always wandering back
This image is trapped inside my head
No matter how much I try to forget
I will always see you lying there dead
How could I have missed that wire?
Why was I, oh so totally blind?
What the hell was I thinking?
What was going through my mind?
That fatal day will always haunt me
The horrific sight of what I saw
Will always be implanted in my mind
For now, yesterday, and forever more
© The right of Billy Little to be identified as the Author of the Work has been asserted by him in accordance with the copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of these poems may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the author.
Trailer for the Film
'71
'71 Trailer from Madplanet on Vimeo.
Even Terrorists Grow old
GSM
Northern Ireland
Our Radio Station Manager & Webmaster Tom ( Munch ) Mcgreevy
Top left in the box
Northern Ireland in the 70's
NITAT Training prior to Deployment to N.I
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