The Troubles of Northern Ireland

Whilst I realise this is a sore and sensitive subject for many who were directly affected by the troubles. Does any one have first hand accounts they'd be willing to share?

Was it surreal to have British troops, patrolling British streets?

What about people from Northern Ireland moving to the UK mainland to escape; did they face discrimination purely because of their nationality?

Are there similarities between what British forces endured with in NI and have to endure abroad in Afghanistan and Iraq?

Can any lessons be learnt from the troubles to aid in current and future counter-insurgency strategies?

reply to post by Flyboy211


Lessons to be learnt from The Troubles?

Lots.

Organised religion is a crock which tends to get exploited by extremists to further their own personal agenda's.

By exploiting centuries of conditioning and the natural Irish romantic nature, gangsters used The Troubles to control communities and profit from their misery.

For lots of other people it meant the loss of loved one's for no reason.
It is hard to express the feeling.

Terrorists are terrorists, end of story.

Integration and a willingness to move forward are the key.

Things in Northern Ireland are not perfect, but they are moving forward and thing's are getting much better.

The one thing that really pisses the Northern Irish off is the constant talk about The Troubles; they just want to get on with their lives just like the rest of us!

A lesson to be learned would be that it's wrong to discriminate against a minority because of their religion. Thankfully, there has been a lot of progress since those days.

Well some things have died down, and for the best, although there is still some secterian activity from both sides of the divide. We saw the other week the Linfield fans ruthlessley attacking a Catholic who was waiting for his wife whilst shopping, and had his throat cut or stabbed in the throat depending on the sources, and he is still critical in hospital. It shows that there are still loads of bigots out there.

I can remember when the brits were on patrol here, they went down my street once, and you know as a young kid you don't have a care in the world, well anyways, i started talking and they were friendly to me as i can remember and they showed me their gun haha, crazy childhood memories haha, but on a more serious note, I was present for a good load of the holy cross dispute, where the catholic primary school for children up to 12 years of age were subjected to horrendus abuse because of their school and religion and also the riots which ensued.

As far as i can remember from the newspapers, the brits did say that they diddnt defeat the IRA, so yes they can learn lots from this, maybe by using tactics, frankly i dont know and i couldnt care less about what the brits do to be honest because they wont be round here anytime soon with the new government.

Of course i do have a bad view because I have read that many of the british army were linked with paramilitaries although i know that not all of them were linked.

I don't have time now, but I have first hand experience of NI during the 80's when my Father was stationed in Belfast. I shall recant them tomorrow, time permitting, but let me just say that living as a child of a British Soldier in NI was pretty rough going, not something I would wish on anyone...

I might just add quickly though, that the Army originally went in to PROTECT the Catholic minority from persecution by the Protestant Loyalist majority.

But, in true Irish style, the Catholics turned on the people sent to protect them.

Hence, we had what is known as The Troubles....

EDIT: Also, why is it that the soldiers are referred to as "Brits", when the very same people who they protected or fought were also Brits? It's not as if we are foreigners, the people of NI are british too.....

Also, many Irish people willingly join the British Army and many, many served in NI.

[edit on 11/4/08 by stumason]