violence
"People started running so I ran with them and we ran into the courtyard of the Rossville Flats - they were demolished before you were born. And then Jack Duddy was shot right beside me. That was the first intimation that I got that what was happening was something very serious. There was firing and people just were murdered. And so there was a period of incredulity - that what you were seeing was a film or a dream. There was no reality about it. So it was a gradual process and we were well aware that there was something very seriously wrong."
Father Edward Daly, former Bishop of Derry who tended to dying and injured on Bloody Sunday
As the Troubles continued, political violence exploded from 1970-1972, causing nearly 500 deaths. Republican and Unionist paramilitary groups were a consistent factor in the politics of Northern Ireland. They enforced political beliefs through bombings, shootings, racketeering, and community intimidation.
There are a number of different sorts of overlap between the paramilitaries and Crown forces. The security forces may cooperate actively with loyalists by training, arming and joining them in murders. If they are not taking an active part, army and police personnel may still offer a great deal of low-level assistance, from providing information to turning a blind eye, and in such ways make the jobs of the UVF and UDA men easier. In a third type of overlap, loyalists use the security forces by infiltrating them and taking advantage of the resources that are available to the state." It is no longer about massive street confrontations between the mobs and the security forces, or between the two communities, or large-scale gun battles in the ghettos of Belfast. The was is now won or lost in the 'game' which involves the use of agents and double agents, the placing of high-definition surveillance equipment, the bugging of weapons and explosives in terrorist dumps and the effectiveness of propaganda." If they aren't able to destroy the desire for freedom, they won't break you. They won't break me because the desire for freedom, and the freedom of the Irish people is in my heart. The day will dawn when all the people of Ireland will have the desire for freedom to show. It is then we'll see the rising of the moon." |
"The British are protagonists in a developing conflict which has tied their troops into urban warfare, occasionally exposed them to international criticism for undemocratic practices, brought them to the Court of Human Rights, and damaged British interests in North America." "Intelligence officers estimated that 75 percent of the weapons seized in Northern Ireland had come from the United States and that nearly half of these had been brought over specifically for use in Northern Ireland." If you strike at , imprison , or kill us out of our prisons or graves we will evoke a spirit that will thwart you and |