troubles – Page 2 – Slugger O'Toole

Gordon Gillespie-Why Sunningdale was never going to work

Soapbox on May 20, 2014, 4:30 pm | Readers 399

As it is the 40th anniversary of the UWC Strike we asked Dr.Gordon Gillespie who completed his doctoral research on the strike to write up a piece on why he feels that Sunningdale was always doomed to failure. Forty years ago this month the first attempt to create a cross community executive in Northern Ireland ended in failure. The political strength of loyalist power station workers allied with paramilitary force on the streets and backed by broad unionist support forced …

Sunningdale, The UWC Strike and their legacies. 23rd May 2014, PRONI.

David McCann on May 14, 2014, 5:30 pm | Readers 140

The Public Records Office of Northern Ireland Friday, 23 May 2014 9am – 4pm The 40th anniversary of the establishment of the first power-sharing executive is an opportunity to reflect on the nature of democratic practice in Northern Ireland. This one-day conference is open to the public and aims to explore not only the reasons for the sudden demise of the ‘Sunningdale Assembly’ during the Ulster Workers’ Council Strike but also the divided legacies that that demise bestowed on Northern …

Art of the Troubles at the Ulster Museum

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on April 12, 2014, 3:12 pm | Readers 346

The Ulster Museum’s Art of the Troubles exhibition is now open and runs through the summer until 7 September. A variety of styles, “sides” and periods exhibited: sixty works from fifty artists. Reactions to atrocities, depictions of politics (a particularly grim triptych by Joseph McWilliams of Sammy Wilson, Ian Paisley Snr and Peter Robinson) and peace talks, as well as reflections on how society dealt with conflict. The no photography rule was being strictly imposed in the gallery this afternoon, …

Colin Broderick’s ‘That’s That’: Book Review

John L. Murphy on August 6, 2013, 9:22 pm | Readers 241

While the phrase popularized by Seamus Heaney ‘whatever you say, say nothing’ endures as a code for Northern Irish character toughened by the Troubles, Colin Broderick’s telling of his childhood reveals the language unspoken. He gives us a glimpse at those in the IRA who were never by necessity singled out by their supporters, but who carried themselves with an air of entitlement, entrusted as they were by the Catholic community with their protection and their idealism in a time …

Why is the BBC ghettoising NI regional outputs?

Mick Fealty on March 29, 2013, 9:07 am | Readers 75

I almost missed 14 Days, a documentary on one of several traumatic weeks in the history of the Troubles. Paul Canning, who’s based in Cambridge didn’t, and writes an impressively well researched blog asking (amongst several other things), why don’t the BBC mainstream more locally produced work? The ‘BBC NI only’ shows are (or were) all also on iPlayer, which is the reason I know about them at all as I often skim the ‘factual’ strand, I didn’t find them because they …

Fisk reminisces.

Dewi on May 21, 2012, 10:25 pm | Readers 50

From the Independent: You can check in any time you want – but you can never leave.: On the Europa Hotel’s message pads, my handwriting records “2 sold VSI RVH” (two soldiers very seriously ill Royal Victoria Hospital), “bomb in SR and VS St” (Sandy Row and Great Victoria Street railway station), “son of judge shot dead”, “policeman ser ill”, “2 Provos arrest, staff officers in 1st Batt, F co”, Europa office bill for 22 May/10 June ’73, £145, day …

David Latimer backs Sinn Fein position (again)

Turgon on March 22, 2012, 2:15 pm | Readers 60

David Latimer is back in the news again. The minister of First Derry Presbyterian Church who previously went to the Sinn Fein Ard Fheis and told us that Martin McGuinness was “one of the true great leaders of modern times” and that we were all guilty for the Troubles is back again. This time he was responding to Declan Kearney’s comments about republicans thinking about reconciliation. When Kearney first made the comments unionists comprehensively rejected Kearney’s comments as partial and …

Twentieth anniversary of Teebane

Turgon on January 17, 2012, 3:40 pm | Readers 723

Almost any date in Northern Ireland is the anniversary of a death from the Troubles. Often the less iconic are forgotten about. As such marking one event may be unfair to the relatives of the less well known about deaths. Sometimes, however, the anniversary is such that is should be marked. This is the 20th anniversary of the Teebane murders. 20 years ago this evening a group of workmen were returning home from working on Lisanelly army base in Omagh: …

Loughgall terrorists could not have been arrested

Turgon on December 2, 2011, 9:45 pm | Readers 710

The Belfast Telegraph and BBC are reporting the results of the HET enquiry into the Loughgall ambush in 1987 where eight members of the IRA’s est Tyrone brigade and an innocent passer-by were killed. For those who do not remember the incident the IRA gang attacked the small RUC station in the village of Loughgall; this attack being part of a pattern of attacking small rural RUC stations (previously Ballygawley and the Birches had been attacked). The terrorists arrived in …

Unionists highlight Troubles border murders

Turgon on November 19, 2011, 7:42 pm | Readers 32

The Belfast Telegraph is reporting that at the meeting of government ministers from Northern Ireland and the RoI in Armagh, Arlene Kelly and Danny Kennedy presented Enda Kenny with details of more than 150 republican murders in border areas during the Troubles. They have called on the RoI government to apologise for the fact that the IRA killers were able to escape across the border following these murders. Mrs. Kelly said: …that they should remind the Irish Government of today …

Terrorists: the good, the bad and the ignored

Turgon on October 30, 2011, 1:02 pm | Readers 400

I blogged my views about Gusty Spence previously. However, Mr. Spence’s death also raises the issue of how ex-terrorists (or ex-combatants for those who prefer the term: exactly how the actions committed terrorists could be called combat is bizarre, but I digress) are viewed especially by the media. The way in which the media views ex paramilitaries differs radically between different individuals and groups but there is a certain common thread especially amongst what might be termed the “establishment media” …

Tears in the Rain comes to Golden Thread Gallery

Turgon on October 19, 2011, 1:15 pm | Readers 14

The Belfast Telegraph is reporting a new exhibition at Belfast’s Golden Thread Gallery called “Tears in the Rain” curated by Máirtín Ó Muilleoir. This exhibition “concentrates on the role art plays in keeping hope alive through the darkest of times and conveying a sense of a shared humanity” The exhibition at the Arts Council and Belfast City Council funded gallery will include the painting “Silver Liberties” by conceptualist artist Conrad Atkinson which was banned from the Ulster Museum in 1978, …

Mary Lynch in the Impartial: saying things that need to be said

Turgon on October 3, 2011, 9:29 pm | Readers 69

Mary Lynch was mentioned on slugger a couple of months ago when there were complaints about her column in the Impartial Reporter. Ms. Lynch refers to those comments in her latest piece saying: “I may not say things that people want to hear but these things need to be said.” On this occasion one of the things Ms. Lynch felt the need to say was about her “illegal and inhumane treatment in 1978” (by the RUC). This treatment seems indeed …

In praise of the Europa Hotel

Turgon on September 7, 2011, 10:39 pm | Readers 80

The Europa Hotel is 40 and the BBC are going to do a special programme to mark the official beginning of its middle age. It was famously the most bombed hotel in the world (according to Wikipedia it was bombed 28 times). Practically everyone in Northern Ireland must have been past the hotel and many must have been in it. I have been to a couple of UUP events there years ago; a few work meetings; have had my tea …

The IRA campaign: not left wing but sectarian struggle

Turgon on September 4, 2011, 1:49 pm | Readers 418

There has been a significant amount written about whether or not Sinn Fein is or was a truly left wing political party. In general those within republicanism who have opposed the current policies of SF have accused them of moving away from the political left. The problem is that neither Sinn Fein nor the IRA nor its assorted “left wing” critics have ever espoused a left wing ideology in any coherent fashion. Their analysis has always either ignored or dismissed …

HET Report on Kingsmills

Turgon on June 16, 2011, 11:29 am | Readers 225

The News Letter today has details of the HET report into the Kingsmills massacre, the full report of which will be released to the families today. From the News Letter: On January 5, 1976, a Ford Transit minibus was carrying a mixed workforce of 16 home from work in Glenanne to Bessbrook. Five were Catholics and 11 were Protestants. Four of the Catholics got out at Whitecross, while the remainder continued on the road to Bessbrook. As the bus cleared …

CoI Gazette denounces attempt to resurrect Eames Bradley

Turgon on June 14, 2011, 7:24 pm | Readers 16

Gladys had a blog on Sunday Sequence’s interview with two former members of the Consultative Group on the Past: Denis Bradley and Rev. Lesley Carroll in which they called for Eames Bradley to be looked at again. My comments on Eames Bradley are posted below. It seems, however, that Gladys and myself are not the only ones to have picked up on the potential appearance of an undead Eames Bradley. The editorial in this weeks Church of Ireland Gazette will …

News Letter interview with Eric Glass

Turgon on June 10, 2011, 11:16 am | Readers 5061

Eric Glass has been a bit of a quiet hero to Fermanagh unionists for years. Like a number of such people they have said little publicly about what happened to them during the IRA’s terrorist campaign. Now, however, Eric has spoken to the News Letter about his remarkable story of courage. Eric Glass was a corporal in the UDR and also worked for Fermanagh District Council and was for quite some time the dog warden. In 1978 he was driving …

Victims and Guilt: a Kafkaesque proposition

Turgon on June 8, 2011, 9:37 pm | Readers 12

In Northern Ireland we are all victims. Unfortunately many people do not feel that they are victims not having suffered during the Troubles. As such it is necessary for peace processors to help us all understand our victimhood. This can be difficult because there are many stubborn cases of people who feel they are not victims. These unfortunate souls must not be neglected by peace processors. Indeed as we are all getting older it is vital that no one is …

Protestant Alienation 2011

Turgon on June 8, 2011, 7:14 pm | Readers 53

Almost 20 years ago now the academic community in Northern Ireland first began looking at the concept of Protestant Alienation. Amongst the factors they identified were the feeling that the Hume Adams talks were creating a blueprint for the defeat of unionism which the British government might acquiesce to. That feeling of alienation increased with events such as the IRA ceasefire. Looking back it is now easy to read the IRA ceasefire as a victory for unionism: the IRA had …