The Northern Irish Troubles 1969-1998

[Bootie]

The Troubles was a period of ethno-political conflict in Northern Ireland which spilled over at various times into England, the Republic of Ireland and mainland Europe.

The duration of the Troubles is conventionally dated from the late 1960s and considered by many to have ended with the Belfast Agreement of 1998.

Violence nonetheless continues on a sporadic basis.

The principal issues at stake in the Troubles were the constitutional status of Northern Ireland and the relationship between the mainly-Protestant Unionist and mainly-Catholic Nationalist communities in Northern Ireland.

The Troubles had both political and military (or paramilitary) dimensions. Its participants included politicians and political activists on both sides, republican and loyalist paramilitaries, and the security forces of the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland.

 

[Harmes]

My uncle, Bob Harmes who served in the British Army for 39 years. Joined as a gunner and finished up as Lt Col. Went to Aden, Belfast and the Falklands among other places. Here he is doing his thing in Belfast.

 

[Bootie]

Casually sporting the SLR.... a mean piece of kit.

 

[Rico]

Casually sporting the SLR.... a mean piece of kit.

Fired the South African version called the R1 here, an adapted version of the original Belgian FN FAL -- was a real heavy mule of a gun as I remember.

 

[Nathangun]

Casually sporting the SLR.... a mean piece of kit.

I trained with the FN back in the day. I was a good shot.

 

[Louis]

 

[Louis]

British troops in Belfast, Northern Ireland around 1969.

 

[Louis]

Belfast - Aug 11, 1971, an old woman clasps her hands on finding a british army soldier on her door.

 

[Louis]

New cleaned of broken images

 

[Louis]

Control from a terrace in Belfast, August 1972.

 

[Louis]

British soldiers in Belfast, 1973.

 

[Louis]

July 1970: Children mocking an military patrol in Belfast.

 

[Louis]

Female fighters for Irish Republican Army they check a man on the streets Belfast, 1971.

 

[Louis]

Royal Marines in Northern Ireland, 1972,

 

[Gunner]

That's what they called it "The Troubles"?

We had a tour guide who was English and was stationed in Ireland during the Troubles.
He said he's walk down the block and one guy would shake his hand the next guy would want to kill him.
Tough duty indeed.

 

[Louis]

Irish boys with a British soldier on N. Ireland, May 1981.

 

[Louis]

Belfast: a woman wounded by an IRA bomb explosion in the city centre, is given first aid.

 

[Gunner]

We had a tour guide who was from England.
He told us he spent some time in the army.
I asked where he was stationed and he said Ireland.
My first thoughts were from my neighbors who were Irish immigrants and talked about the Emerald Isle with beautiful pictures of rolling green hills and rocky coast lines.
Thinking of many worse places to be stationed I remarked what great duty that must have been and how lucky he was.
His face clouded over and said "Yeah. Lucky."
I wondered why he said it that way when I realized he meant Northern Ireland and during all the fighting.
He said he would walk down the street and one person would want to shake his hand and the next would want to shoot him.
I guess it wasn't so lucky after all.

 

[Louis]

British soldier dialogue with a young boy in Belfast, Feb 1978.

 

[mTk]

Failed firearms safety class 101.