Memories of the Troubles

2ygb4cmqetsjhx · 19-12-2011 12:00PM

My granny used to take me and my cousin to Belfast every christmas to do some shopping. I was very young. I could walk but I was also young enough to be wheeled around in a pram. Id say it was around 1992-1993.

I remember distinctly sitting in the buggy crying because my Granny was talking to a British soldier and he had a gun. I was trying to unstrap myself from the pram so that I could run away!

the_syco · 19-12-2011 12:22PM

I remember staying at a holiday house that belonged to a friend of the family, and queuing for an hour in the car to get past the checkpoint, to get into NI to goto a nearby supermarket.

=-=

Now a days, I goto Belfast quite regularly, mainly going to metal pubs in Belfast city. You'd see people from both sides (a few covered in tattoos of their religions past), and I never got hassled.

Fratton Fred · 19-12-2011 01:31PM

Chuck Stone wrote: »

Yep. I remember when an anti-Catholic murder gang blew up the Catholic Church in our town.

Our local CofI reverend started off in Belfast and he often talks about the time the Catholic church near him suffered an arson attack.

He suggested to the church vestry that they offer the parish hall to the Priest so they could use it for services whilst their church was being repaired.

The reaction he got shocked him, as he put it, you would have thought they were being asked to sacrifice their first born child.

Bigotry like that is hard to understand.

A friend of mine grew up I'm South Belfast. Her brother was badly beaten up for being a taig by the local loyalist bullyboys, then a few weeks later he was asked to do some "errands" to help with the cause. When he told those guys to **** off, they gave him a beating that put him in hospital.

Whilst visiting her brother in hospital, my friend watched the news of the two corporals dragged from a car and beaten to death. At that point she decided humanity in northern ireland had died.

Two days later she got on the ferry to Stranrear and vowed never to go back.

Teyla Emmagan · 19-12-2011 02:37PM

We used to go through the North a lot when we were kids to visit Granny (or when things were really bad, the long way around by Bundoran). My memory is of huge queues, young guys with big scary guns, and the massive fortifications at the checkpoints. And being afraid that the car would break before we reached Donegal. I remember my uncle giving me a dig when I spoke to one of the checkpoint guides and being really nervous as a result (possibly because we were busily involved in some cross border chicken smuggling at the time).

Anyway, it wasn't exactly pleasant.

Fear Uladh · 19-12-2011 03:17PM

Thankfully I grew up when it was over.

We still had the protestant/catholic divide and we (Irish) lads always fought with them, when I reached 11 I remember thinking 'WTF are we fighting for?!'.

Thankfully I had a neutral group of people I hung around with in college and never experienced much sectarianism.

My older family members however were not so lucky and it is easy to figure out why there had to be a retaliation, even my protestant/English friends from college would agree.

N.I. is a now peaceful place and Belfast is a top spot to go shopping or a night out.

jester77 · 19-12-2011 03:26PM

My PE teacher was a member of the IRA and done time. They didn't want to give him his job back after he was released but he won the court case. First class we had, he told us all to line up so we all stood up against the wall and put our hands in the air.

linfield · 19-12-2011 03:32PM

Remember the first time I crossed the border as a kid and I drove through a wee village in Donegal. Saw a police station there and was amazed at the lack of security around it.

Was young during the troubles but know all too well about loyalist paramilitaries unfortunately.

Defiler Of The Coffin · 19-12-2011 04:27PM

My manager told me about how when he was in college in Belfast he got searched by the police in a shopping centre, they found a device on him with wires and other bits and pieces hanging out of it. It was his electronics project but he had a hard time convincing them of it

RichieC · 19-12-2011 04:41PM

jerry adams with an actors voice... bout it...

Nforce · 19-12-2011 04:51PM

I was in secondary school when the hunt for The Border Fox was taking place...Still remember the Garda checkpoints.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnXnQe0USxI

My wife's uncle was murdered by the Provos in 1983.

Nforce · 19-12-2011 05:01PM

Defiler Of The Coffin wrote: »

My manager told me about how when he was in college in Belfast he got searched by the police in a shopping centre, they found a device on him with wires and other bits and pieces hanging out of it. It was his electronics project but he had a hard time convincing them of it

I grew up in the UK during the 70's,during the "mainland" IRA bombing campaign. My old man (Irish born and reared) was once working laying gas mains beside an Army barracks. He had a large tin box,probably an old biscuit tin, which had his lunch in it. Later in the day the whole crew decided to take a break...and fupp off to a local bar for some refreshments. A couple of hours passed and when they came back to the work site the whole area was cordoned off with army personnel,cops and bomb squad all milling around. Turns out that my father had left his lunch box behind and the authorities put 2 and 2 together and thought that it was a bomb! He got a bit of a bollicking for that one.:o:eek:

Plazaman · 19-12-2011 05:06PM

In the mid 80's, early 90's our local Youth Club used to do a lot of North/South Exchanges with Youth Clubs in the North. Was bemused at first at things like them telling us not to walk on a certain side of the street or go into certain shops.

I remember staying with host family just outside Enniskillen when the Hillsborough Disaster happened in 89. A group of us were in Enniskillen Town Centre the next day talking about it and we were stopped and frisked by 3 soldiers who obviously heard our accents. My first time being frisked by fellas with guns, didn't shít myself but was damn near touching cloth.

Another time we were staying in a Community Centre in Belfast but the local youth leaders forgot to let the then RUC know. Was in a dorm dozing when myself and two others were woken up to guns being pointed at us. We explained who we were and knew the main group, including leaders, were watching videos in the hall. Three of us walk in the door to hall with hands raised, cue laughter from the assembled group thinking we were taking the píss. I'll never forget the total change of mood and faces when four RUC lads came in after us with guns still drawn.

Never spoiled my attitude of the place though and I still love visiting Enniskillen and especially Belfast, great city.

Cool_CM · 19-12-2011 05:20PM

Chuck Stone wrote: »

The attack on the church prompted the Rev. David Armstrong, who was then Presbyterian minster, to offer his sympathy to the local Catholic priest and his congregation. This contact led to hostility towards Armstrong from within his own Protestant community and eventually to his being forced to leave his church and Northern Ireland in April 1985.

Remember seeing him speak in Cork a few years ago, he said that he would still get the odd threat along the lines of "we can come down, kill you and be back over the border before anybody finds your body". Scary stuff.

Also quite fitting to see that when his own church burnt down (electrical fault), the local catholic church offered him the use of theirs.

http://churchofireland.net/news/1054

A Dub in Glasgo · 19-12-2011 05:23PM

I dived for cover when an IRA bomb exploded near me whilst I watched the Bloody Sunday commemoration in Derry in 1990. Charlie Love was one of those on the commemoration and he was killed by flying masonry. He was 16.

I was visiting my friend in Carndonagh, Co. Donegal for the weekend and we were getting the bus back to Dublin later that day. We then decided to watch the commemoration. The British Army and RUC were very jumpy afterwards and I was assaulted by a soldier (rifle butt to the shoulder) who wanted to know what I was doing in Derry that day.

Dionysus · 19-12-2011 05:39PM

I think of it every Halloween, when people use the phrase: "Trick of Treat".

I still remember the blond guy's massive grin, this guy, as he was taken away.

Marie Jones's play, A Night in November, which was inspired by the "trick of treat" jeers of Northern Ireland soccer supporters the following week at the NI-RoI match, was one of the finest plays I've ever seen. Very poignant.

starviewadams · 19-12-2011 05:59PM

Remember a photographer who worked with my mam showing me the blood stained rubber bullet he was hit with when he was working on the Garvaghy Road when I was 7 or 8,couldn't believe how huge it was.

I also remember a few bomb scares on O'Connell Street in the early-mid 90's because I'd be in work with my mam on the school holidays and her offices would be evacuated.

I remember the border checkpoints when we'd be going to see my granny in Donegal,there'd be 1 Garda and a soldier on our side and about 15 British soldiers on NI side.And I remember the huge British Army base at Aughnacloy,remember a soldier searching the car and being amazed at his camouflage and his machine gun.

Tope · 19-12-2011 06:07PM

My mum’s from the North so we used to go up a lot when I was a kid in the 80s to visit family. I remember the border checkpoints, armed soldiers asking us where we were going and occasionally checking the boot of the car.

A few stories I remember; my uncles used to work on building sites and if they were ever working in a Protestant area they would call each other by Protestant-sounding names instead of their real names, like Sammy instead of Sean for instance, in case of attracting trouble.

My auntie used to run a little corner shop in Newry and there would be British soldiers on patrol on the street outside. One cold rainy day there was a young lad, about 19, stationed outside her shop for hours, looking freezing and miserable. She felt sorry for him and brought him out a Mars bar and a cup of tea, and he was really pleased and grateful. But I remember people were a bit shocked, saying she shouldn’t have done it and she could get herself in trouble. Luckily nothing came of it but I thought it was a sad state of affairs when a kind gesture like that could be frowned upon.

LowOdour · 19-12-2011 06:17PM

Living in the west, alot of my memories come from watching the nine o clock news...it always seemed to be one terrible story after another. I guess the story of Carol Ann Kelly is one that would stick in the mind from the 80's....it really shone a light on the inhumanity in some people

Sunnyisland · 19-12-2011 06:35PM

I was only eight but I clearly remember the civil rights marches on RTE 1 news,We only had a black & white tv but as we have relations living there it was a very big worry for my parents.Worse for my family was to come when my mothers sister my aunt was blown up by the UVF/british government in the Dublin bombings of 1974,I remember my mother very distraught and the unreal sense of what had happened,I was 12 then and even now its all very clear to me that terrible friday in may,Went to live in Belfast when I was 15 with my relations,needless to say I seen and heard many bombs and killings & riots,The huger strikes,la mon,enniskillen,Gibraltar,the 2 undercover soldiers dragged from there cars, greysteel,INLA infighting,the start of the peace people,They all had effects on my family & me in a lot of ways,There is of course lots more but actually writing it down brings back a lot of anger/sad emotions,just glad and hope that it never goes back to all that.

Chuck Stone · 19-12-2011 06:54PM

Our next-door-neighbour, a young Protestant woman, was killed in the Droppin Well bombing.

I was too young to understand what was going on and my parents had done their best to insulate us as children from sectarianism.

Actually they used to buy us munchies and set up chairs at the front of the house so we could watch the marching bands on the TWALTH.

I didn't even know I was from the minority community until I asked my parents what a 'Fenian bastard' was after some other kid called me it!

Nolanger · 19-12-2011 07:06PM

Back in the '90s had to leave a nightclub up there early while no one else was allowed leave. Bet they're still looking for me?

Tope · 19-12-2011 07:13PM

Tiocfaidh Armani wrote: »

When you consider what those soldiers were doing to nationalists if I lived there and got a rap of a butt of one of their rifles I wouldn't be best pleased to see someone giving one of them a cup of tea either!

Oh I know, I understand the sentiments under the circumstances, but on a personal level my aunt just saw a young guy standing in the rain, probably wishing he'd never joined up and was back home in England with his mammy.
It was just a moment of sympathy for a boy who was not much older than her own kids. But yeah, the resentment was understandable.

Benny_Cake · 19-12-2011 07:17PM

Tiocfaidh Armani wrote: »

They were shot dead. They were up to something that day and got found it.

You know, this was my first memory of the troubles and regardless of why the corporals were there (and I don't recall anything to suggest anything other than they were simply idiots in the wrong place at the wrong time), but the people who killed them that day behaved worse than animals. That isn't to defend everything that the British army were up to in the north.

Il Trap · 19-12-2011 07:31PM

My most vivid memories are from when I was about 8-11 years old. My grandmother lived in South Armagh and we'd stay with her frequently. I remember how perfectly normal it seemed to look out the bedroom window to see army helicopters landing in the playground just next to the house. I have memories of driving past soldiers crouched in the hedges with rifles pointed at the cars passing. Also, remember soldiers walking through my grandmother's back garden at all times of the day and night.

I'll never forget the day of the Omagh bomb and my standing in the kitchen mother in floods of tears when the news came through.

Son of one of the guys who did it was in my class. Little scrote is still involved in the 'fight for freedom'.

cosanostra · 19-12-2011 07:47PM

British army land rovers roaming the streets of Derry and what looked like a wee boy with his head out of the roof aiming the gun!

Getting locket in a shop in the foyleside shopping center cause the apprentice boys were running a muck through the place although they prob wouldn't have caused any harm it was more for there safety

Army checkpoints at the border and getting our car searched pretty scary experience when your only wee and foreign soildiers pointing guns and shouting orders.

Various bomb threats, burnt out cars and the aftermath of rioting

R P McMurphy · 19-12-2011 07:49PM

One of earliest memories is of being about five or so and being on the news, singing in the background, with a couple of others from school when there were a couple of Provos from the area being taken to court

Tonyandthewhale · 19-12-2011 08:20PM

Tiocfaidh Armani wrote: »

Reality my dear boy, 1971 was no different to 1921 in that regard. Funny how people now look back on the cold blooded killing then with rose-tinted specs.

Disagreeing with the activities of the provos and the likes does not equate to dismissing the suffering of 1921. It merely indicates an understanding that violence in one instance does not automatically justice violence in another.

Chuck Stone · 19-12-2011 08:23PM

It would be nice if we could just stick to personal memories without the political analysis.

Gonzor · 19-12-2011 08:25PM

Remember about 3 or 4 years ago when the solider got shot while getting a pizza delivery and then the PSNI officer (I think it was) got shot about a week later.

I was down the North just as all this was happening. One of the lads was wearing a celtic jersy :rolleyes: ANd lo and behold we ended up in a housing estate somewhere and within minutes there was a huge gang of 16-17 year olds throwing rocks and stones at us and screaming at us that if we dont get out they'll put our balls in a vice :eek:

CatFromHue · 19-12-2011 09:09PM

LowOdour wrote: »

one terrible story after another

This would be my main memory of it all.

Memories of the Troubles

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