Just my thoughts and experiences
as I think more of this word we call democracy.. The protestant majority are very prejudice against
the catholic minority and will ensure that this discrimination extends to
housing, education and professional employment. In 1969 this discrimination
boiled over into major violence as both sides started to kill the other. Clearly
a situation that could not be allowed to continue so the UK government put peace
keeping troops into Northern Ireland to keep the warring fractions apart. For
the first 6 months we were made welcome by both sides as we did stop the cycle
of revenge killing. But this honeymoon period was not to last. There soon
followed a major demonstration of Civil unrest as both sides turned their
attention to the now common enemy. The peace keeping troops became the target
for both fractions who had started to kill each other even with the troops on
the street.. A major demonstration took place in the city of Londonderry and the
troops came under fire. Unfortunately in this case the troops in question
were the paratroopers. These were well trained hard fighting men very useful to
have in a real war. They were not diplomats and hence there response to coming
under fire was to hit back & hard. They killed at least 13 demonstrators
that "Bloody Sunday". This was an over-reaction as some undoubtedly were not
armed. Others were most certainly armed, and one Roman catholic Padre could be
seen on film removing the gun from a dead demonstrator so that at the end of the
day the church could claim all demonstrators were un-armed. This claim goes on
today as the church constantly tries to bring these soldiers to a court of law
so that they could stand a charge of murder. Such is the twisted minds of the
Northern Ireland population.. The British servicemen now found themselves the
target of all Irish fractions, They are under the spotlight of the TV cameras
and are accountable in law for their actions. A recent case had a stolen car
crashing through an army checkpoint failing to stop as required to by law. A 19
year old soldier shot at the car & killed one of the occupants. The car was
full of teenagers who having stolen the car went for a joy ride and as they were
all drunk felt it to be fun to crash through a checkpoint. Teenage theft of
private cars is a major crime wave in Ireland. The soldier was tried in court
and was found guilty of manslaughter and hence sentenced to be imprisoned. This
young man served six years before public opinion eventually made the
establishment release him. He was not in that province through choice, he was
drafted there to try and keep the peace. In situations like this should a
serviceman be subject to the law of the land??…A very difficult question to
answer. So I leave that conclusion to you. 17 young men with theirs lives before them had
simply tried to save lives and had been killed in this way.,.. Killed in the
name of a religious cause… How obscene… There deaths served no purpose other
than to give the IRA their front page story in the newspapers. Later when the
paperwork was completed, It was noticed 7 of these young men were Roman catholic. It
is impossible for me to remain in any way religious after that and similar
experiences. I have never seen divine intervention save a single life, But on
occasions I have ….On other occasions I have failed and then got mad as hell.
This has nothing to do with any sort of God… This had to do with the resources I
had at my disposal at the time. So democracy is kept alive in Northern Ireland… But
just consider the expense in money, time & lives. If I had one thing to say
to America society in general it would be aimed at NORAD (or whatever this
organisation calls itself today)…I would ask please stop funding this
multimillion Dollar terrorist organisation. Then maybe the Irish will seek a
peaceful solution. We were later involved in seeking out an IRA sleeper
group in the British town of Bristol. Sleepers are people planted into a
population for years on end to research the better targets in that community and
then activated when the time is right. We believed that this group was 7 strong
and all intelligence reports indicated that they were about to become active.
After a 5 month operation we captured 5 who were brought to trial under
anti-terrorist laws. Two may well have gone undetected but we had the
quartermaster. Then we took a look at how these people had been living. They had
been "asleep" in Bristol for 7 years. They did not work, lived separately in the anonymous
environment of "Bedsit" land, had no telephone accounts and changed their
addresses frequently. They had no bank accounts or credit cards, dealing only in
cash. They did not draw any state benefits and therefore had no social service
identification numbers. In short in any method of administration, these people
did not exist. So we were intrigued to find out just how these people had
survived. It transpired that these 5 people had received in cash £250 pounds
each every week. Run these figures through your calculator and you find that the
cost of just one sleeper squad was £65,000 ($108,500) each year. It was felt
that 20 more such groups would be active on the British Mainland at that time.
Clearly the Irish terrorist organisation is a multi-million dollar business and
most of that money comes from Americans of Irish descent. Simply
Steve
Northern Ireland & the so called "Irish Troubles" has been a
major source of conflict in the UK for many years & actually goes back to
the 17 th. Century, which of course can have little relevance today. But the
troubles go on from one generation to another. Lloyd George many years ago one
said…"I just understand the Irish Problem & then they go and change it".
Such is the frustrations of generations of politicians as they strive to find a
peaceful solution to this in-built problem. The current problem stems from the
day Ireland was given its independence… A mainly Roman Catholic population with
a majority of protestants living in the most northerly 6 counties. The
protestant majority in the north wished to remain as part of the UK and in the
true aspect of democracy their wishes were considered and the island was
partitioned. These six counties form Northern Ireland and are an integral part
of the UK. The rest of Ireland often referred to incorrectly as Southern Ireland
became the totally independent country of EIRE. Unfortunately in the protestant
north remains a minority of Roman Catholics. In Ireland these two religions are
major enemies and will never live together in
peace
The Irish problem is hell bent
on making headlines as it wishes to remain on the front pages of the daily
newspapers. According to them the ends always justifies the means and they care
not who they kill and maim in their cowardly attacks. It was remembrance Sunday
in the small town of Enniskillen. Old men from the ages of 60 to 90 years old
met in the town square with their families to hold an open air church service in
remembrance of the unknown soldiers that died in both world wars. A peaceful
emotional event that takes place in every city town and village once each year
throughout the UK… The IRA had planted a massive bomb in the drainage system
under the town square. They waited until all were assembled and then detonated
it. It killed many and maimed more.. Old Men Women & Children, No one asked
what was their religion…Protestant or catholic it mattered not…. What mattered
was the fact that it made the headlines.
On one Sunday in 1977 a Royal Marine unit located in Northern Ireland got the phone
call that a bomb had been planted in the nearby town square and would be
detonated within the hour. Their task was to get to that town as soon as possible
and help the police force evacuated as many people as possible. There was no
time to find and disarm the bomb. Their mission was to save as many civilian lives
as possible. The town was only 15 miles away so road transport was selected in
place of using the helicopters as it would be faster. It takes time to
range and launch aircraft.. Tis quicker in these circumstances to use land
rovers and three ton trucks.. They planned to be there in 15
minutes.
A small convoy drove past a fatal place … A 3,000 pound
bomb placed under the road was detonated by a command wire some two miles away
on some high ground.. There was no bomb in the nearby town, this was a simple
ambush to kill servicemen. We lost some 17 young men in that blast.
Even today it
is a constant battle to keep IRA terrorists in check. Later in Gibraltar a squad
had planted a bomb in time to disrupt a major military parade that takes place
each year. Had this bomb been detonated many hundreds would have been killed in
those crowded streets. As this group crossed over from Spain on the day of the
parade, they we simply taken out. We made a big mistake that day as it later
transpired that these men were unarmed. A mistake we bitterly regret. My guess is
that there remains hidden in Gibraltar a cache of small arms that they intended
to use that day. Maybe they thought it an unnecessary risk to constantly cross
the borders carrying these weapons and had hidden them for later use. But the
only people to die that day was the terrorist…And yes yet again it was a
Sunday.