AIBU to be shocked that I had never heard about 'Bloody Friday'?

[sashh]

On the thread about public information films WeShouldOpenABar mentioned a film and I went to find it on youtube.

One of the films that popped up in the side bar is about 'Bloody Friday'. This happened when I was a small child, and I know my mum stopped us watching the TV news after my brother was asked what he wanted to be when he grew up and gave the answer, "An IRA sniper".

Anyway I have heard about Bloody Sunday, have a vague recollection of seeing the priest with a white hanky on TV and I am probably aware of it more from the campaign for justice for those shot.

I'm just wondering how much else I missed / am not aware of. I remember some bombings being reported extensively such as the one at Omahg and Enniskillen, I know these were much later so I was older or an adult.

So how many of you dear mumsnetters have heard of this? And if you have are you outside NI?

Reply direct to op, when we're you born?

I was 1976. London. I have strong memories of London scare threats, bombings and tube evacuations all through 1980s and into 90s.

It's not a threat that's evaporated. It is strongly felt but worked with in London now although the enemy is different.

Dara obriens sketch "damn there's a bomb at Victoria...? Ok well if I take the Northern line to ... X and district to y I'll still get home" sums it up for every day.

I know about bloody Friday etc. I'm unsure at about my age how you wouldn't know its name if not details. Memories I think are led by reactions of adults around. Mine were of the "keep calm and carry on" variety. I remember media newspapers and news reports too.

The images of London with blown windows and paper flying isn't one I'll forget

Yeah, there was a lot of attacks on London during the troubles, I remember it well as I grew up in London in the 70s and 80s and we never went shopping up West due to my parents fear of bombings. Plus we were evacuated from our house one night due to a bomb scare.

There's a list on Wiki of attacks on London, pretty shocking to read now to see the spread and frequency of them.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_terrorist_incidents_in_London#1970.E2.80.931979

Born in 64.

Never heard of bloody Friday.

There were a lot of city bombs in England in the 70/80s and can remember we didn't go into Birmingham city centre after Bobby Sands starved himself to death.

At our school the Irish girls were called names after the birmingham pub bombs.

Horrible times both here and in Ireland of course.

I always found it ironic that after 9/11 the New York fire fighters were at the forefront of fundraising for the victims of terrorism when they had been huge fund raisers for the IRA.

I believe the IRA started to negotiate after they murdered 2 children in Manchester who were shopping for Mother's Day presents. Brave men.

I do think both John Major and Tony Blaire were brave and tenacious to negotiate with the terrorists from both sides.

I was born in 1965 and brought up in rural southern England. As I was three when the Troubles kicked off, bombs, shootings, the words 'Provisional IRA', 'Loyalist gunmen', 'Semtex' etc were on the news so often that it was no longer shocking. I was well into my teens before I realised that actually it was NOT normal for there to be ongoing guerilla warfare in part of the United Kingdom.

I fear that my own children, who were toddlers at the time of 9/11, now have exactly the same feeling about Islamist terrorism.

I grew up in the very South of Ireland and I used to be terrified of going up North and revealing my southern accent. I knew no one who supported the IRA's actions growing up but I was very aware that other people believed all Irish people were terrorists and I felt acute shame about it. I'd imagine it's the same now for many British Asians.

I remember as a child my parents listened to the Radio Ulster news every morning at breakfast. In the 70s and early 80s it seemed like there was a fatal shooting every night and when my granny died (of natural causes!) when I was about 5, I assumed she had been shot and asked my parents why there was nothing on the news about it. I think I thought that you just lived until someone shot you

I was born in 1970 to a Belfast dad and a mum from the south and lived in London and I didn't know about Bloody Friday either. I'm quite shocked at that. There was a lot of discussions in our house about the troubles during the 80's and 90's particularly.

My parents also had many issues due to their accents and passports when travelling.

to be honest, in defence of my previous rather ignorant post, I lived in London area in those days and honestly have forgotten how bad it was.
I think Al Queada just moved us on completely.
As said before my poor old dad had to iron out his accent completely and still got racial abuse from the neighbours

"had forgottn

I studied the politics of NI at Uni and I cannot remember anything about Bloody Friday either . I do wonder if it says something about the focus of the media though that we all know about Bloody Sunday (committed by the UK military) but less of us know about Bloody Friday (committed by the IRA). It almost reinforces the romanticized view of The Troubles.

Having been round Belfast meeting all the major political parties and touring the factionalised areas (Ardoyne, Shankhill Road etc) the murals, be they UVF or IRA or other are equally haunting. I remember seeing one that had a terrorist wielding a rocket launcher and in black writing underneath 'Rocket Tour of 94'. Shudders.

I remember being scared as a child. My dad was in the military and he taught us what to look for under the car in the morning or when out and about and to never say what he did. If people we did not know asked, we used to say he worked on the oil rigs. This was particularly pertinent when we camped next to a Northern Irish family one holiday abroad.

What we also do not see is the countless times a terrorist attack is averted through intelligence operations, but there are examples where these operations went wrong (Gibraltar).

"BTW the fact that there are people who have not heard of it all has quite cheered me up. Let's chuck it in the "dustbin of history" where it belongs and move on."

We need to know out history and why there are certain attitudes in the UK and prejudices etc. We don't think we should forget about WW1 and 2 or the holocuast or slavery.

I grew up in the Glasgow area in the 70's so we didn't have the same fear and threat but I remember a lot of anger against the IRA etc. I was angry when at about 15 I started finding out more of what was behind the Troubles. I was angry that we learned about the Spanish Revolution and The American War of Independence at school but not out what was happening in our own country. The impression I got from the media and people in general as a child was that the Irish Catholics were terrorists and bad and that the Uk and the Army were the innocent partying the good guys.

I read a book called 'Dogsbody' as a child (fanciful tale about a star trapped inside a dog - he was the pet of a little girl called Kathleen).

Kathleen got a lot of stick for being Irish in England and I didn't understand why. I asked my mum and she said something like 'Some people don't like each other.' in-depth explanations in my house!!

I only even realised that Ireland was a conflicted country when I was around 12 or so.

I used to go on holidays every year to England to stay with relatives. When I was 8 or 9 I would have gone out and tried to make friends with the kids playing and some would invariably turn on me for being Irish. Then I went inside crying and my parents scolded me for letting them call me Irish. 'Go back out and tell them you're as
British as they are, you're not Irish'. Yeah, that helped

we studied the Irish conflict for GCSE in 1980 so it was available to study in schools.

I have heard of Bloody Friday, but only from watching documentaries on you tube about The Troubles. We learned about the Troubles in GCSE History and while I remember Bloody Sunday being discussed in depth, I don't recall Bloody Friday being mentioned once. I am from NI. Born late 80's.

The events on Bloody Friday led to an influx of young men joining the UDA and UVF in order to retaliate. I think it was a key event in the escalation and I am not sure why it is overlooked.

the University of Ulster has a useful web archive site for those interested in the Troubles.

I spent part of my late childhood/early teens in Eastern US during the 80's. In England I have very clear memories of being constantly evacuated from shops, the bigger atrocities and being very scared of the bombs. When we moved to the states there was a large Irish-American population in my area; their children were told not to speak to me as I was English - I didn't really understand at the time - my Mum shielded me from the worst I think but I suffered a lot of bullying because of it. I was talking with an old American friend just after 9/11 (so pre 7/7) and she was telling me that I didn't understand what it was like to live in fear of terrorists. She was really shocked when I told her about in the UK in the 70's/80's.
It makes me wonder how the future will view the past decade.

As I said, I had to sit on my hands in the days after the Boston bomb went off. It was the equivalent of just one incident in hundreds that people in the UK and NI had to go through, but the hysteria and handwringing that went on. Of course it was awful and inexcusable and sad, but it was just one incident. And quite a few Bostonians gave money to organisations like Noraid.

And quite a few Bostonians gave money to organisations like Noraid.

Yeah, there's a large population in Boston who fled NI during having been burnt out if their homes.

I'm not sure what your point is Abra1d - you have less sympathy because some people in Boston gave to a terrorist organisation so they should stop their whining? or is it a more hell slap it up you attitude?.Either way its horrible.

scrappy

I too had a very similar conversation with an American friend who told us with complete innocence that Britsin hadn't had a terrorist attack yet. That was after 9/11.

She's a really nice lady but I
Had to really really hold back from loosing my temper.

My ds however asked her if for had any idea who the IRA were and that ggete had been countless bombs both in England and Ireland.

She really had no idea.

wriggle unfortunately the US is basically a very inward looking country.

That's why they are always amazed when they are attacked.

And I find it unforgivable that American some Americans fund raised for the IRA do thru could attack their closest ally.

I find that and still do disgusting.

My dad had American citizenship btw and comes from New York so pretty well informed.

Agree Abra

Were most members of the IRA not from NI rather than Ireland. As such their accents wouldn't have been 'Southern' (maybe you mean those from Donegal which is more Northerly than NI).

I don't ever remember hearing Irish people saying they cringed in fright at a specific accent, even after the deaths from the Dublin and Monaghan bombings which are believed to have been carried out by Loyalist paramilitaries with the assistance of British forces/intelligence. The shocking thing about this would be if the forces of (with government connivance) a nation state was involved in the bombings in Ireland. The Irish state were never involved with paramilitary activities in Northern Ireland.

Now there may be annoyance and suspicion in Ireland at the British government's refusal to hand over documents related to this so a proper inquiry can be carried out, but not at ordinary British people or their accents. I think the families of those who died are still looking for a proper inquiry, but as so much time has passed, many of these will be dead soon.

Maybe a little time needs to pass before people can look at the troubles. In the news, I believe Amnesty International are calling for a case being brought wrt the internment era in NI and the accusation of torture of people who weren't charged with anything. There was a movie about it with Daniel Day Lewis.

A lot went on in Northern Ireland and related outside of it. I suspect more than we will ever know. Reporting of the past may have not have been as dependable as now (however dependable that is). But with iPhones, internet etc, everything would be more instant and more things given coverage, I think.