To suggest that people unfamiliar with the Northern Ireland conflict watch an episode of ‘Pop Goes Northern Ireland’ on iPlayer?

[Cakescakescakes]

I’m starting this by presuming you can watch BBC NI programmes in the rest of the UK?

Pop Goes Northern Ireland is a series looking at news footage from the Troubles year by year soundtracked (rather than narrated) by songs from that year. Tonight was about 1988 - dozens and dozens of murders - murders of innocents of all ages, state murders of IRA members, bomb attacks on school children, grenade attacks on funerals and the savage event where two soldiers were dragged from a car and shot in broad daylight. Total and utter horror on all sides involved. No winners.

Someone on a Brexit thread the other day mentioned that it ‘wouldn’t be ideal’ for trouble to flare up in NI again following Brexit and that breathtaking lack of insight made me post this.

Get a snapshot of what it was like living through this year after year after year (1988 wasn’t even ‘that bad’ relative to the 70’s etc). Recent history on your own doorstep.

Ok thanks treacle. She's a sensitive one so maybe I'll give it a pre-watch.

Sorry what are you trying to achieve asking people to watch something that happened a third of a century ago?

That they might begin to understand what is happening NOW? People are breathtakingly ignorant about what has and is happening in your own country, and the massive issues that Brexit is causing for Northern Ireland.
Don't you feel ashamed of how little you know?

Thanks for this OP.

I was discussing this the other night with DP. I am 40 so can remember the bomb scares and stuff from the news and had family serving over there. But I don't know a great deal about the political side or what each side was fighting for. I said to dp that there wasn't many documentaries about it all shown.

I am from NI, but left almost twenty years ago now. The episodes from 1988 onwards were particularly emotional for me as I was surprised how fresh it still was in my memory after such a long time.

It still amazes me that the history of English involvement in Ireland and the history of Northern Ireland is still not taught as part of the national curriculum. I would love to stand corrected on this point. We were not even taught the history of Northern Ireland when I was a child living there - we learned about the Bronze Age and the Iron Age and then we skipped onto English history only (no Scottish or Welsh history either).

episode

was..arrrgh I just can't write now

Sorry what are you trying to achieve asking people to watch something that happened a third of a century ago?

It's just a rather gentle reminder for all people who following the night of the Brexit vote were all: "Oh, what the fuck is going to happen to Scotland?" and never asked: "Oh, what the fuck is going to happen with Northern Ireland?"

Years ago an acquaintance, who grew up in Belfast, told me they would leave the keys in their car overnight. Better to have the car stolen than have someone knocking on the door demanding the keys

My dad worked as delivery driver for an chocolate/confectionary company in the 70’s and his van was hijacked twice. Once they tied him up and took the the van which was later used to transport guns and then burnt out it and the other time they just cleared the back out of sweets and let him go again. He was very lucky not to have been forced into something worse like so many poor drivers who ended up at gunpoint having to drive bombs etc.

@treaclesoda - They covered various civil rights marches. The marches started in 1969 but Bloody Sunday was in 1972. Episode 1 was 1969, Episode 2 was 1974, Episode 3 1981, Episode 4 1985, Episode 5 1994. That's all I've seen so far so there may be coverage of Bloody Sy=unday elsewhere.

Your poor dad OP. Terrifying. As a 14 year old I missed the Ideal Homes exhibition bombing London in 1976 by 20 minutes: at the Guinness stand.
Just watched episode one with a DS. "It looks like Syria" was his comment. Reminds me of my teenage years.
There needs to be a 20 part netflix documentary series on this with interviews (and less 70s music!)
And an open university free course on it.

theymade I think I've worked out what's going on here! You and I are watching two different series The ones I watched earlier this week were 1972, 1977 and 1988 .

The 1972 episode definitely covers Bloody Sunday.

@treaclesoda - that would explain it then

I was wondering how a) I could have missed bloody sunday or b) how you could have mistaken the earlier marches for bloody sunday, unless the BBC footage was really different to anything I had ever seen on RTE!

Bobby Sands doc is still on iPlayer and is very good too.
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b096msfr
Available for 2 more hours.

Thanks for this OP. I watched two of the apisodes on iPlayer with my two 14yo DDs. A conversation with FIL (he has dementia so some of his conversations are new, and sometimes difficult to follow) has lead to the girls having lots of questions and, to be brutally honest, I don't feel educated enough about the situation to answer. I went to school in Scotland and don't recall learning anything much about NI, and the little I do know was from an Irish classmate.

If anyone would like anything a bit more in depth (but without the music), the first of this series of podcast is interesting, it goes into some depth about the boarder, its history and the problems with having any kind of hard board on the island of Ireland. The following one about Unionists is also fascinating.

theirishpassport.com

Julie I was 16 when a bomb ripped through our town killing dozens of men women and children. A school friend lost her eyes. She has never seen her children. We are only 34/35 now so hardly a third of a century ago. I must tell her to get over it sure it was so long ago

I do get you OP. Understanding the past helps the future.

However I’d refute that British people know nothing about the troubles. I lived in London through the IRA bombings as a child. Watched several TV documentaries. Known friends directly affected on both sides.

I now live in Southern Ireland and am constantly judged as ‘knowing nothing’ because I am English. This is even though I never offer opinions. And yet ironically I’m far more aware and experienced than most Irish locals here that I know, who are all pretty much terrified of ever having to reunite or deal with NI.

I also come across pretty shocking biases and ignorance quite often from Ireland about the UK and low awareness of politics there. Including brexit.

So just really saying we should all be a little humble, learn and observe more than we throw about. Whichever nationality you are.

Endof Summer, there is no country called Southern Ireland, you might find the locals a little more friendly if you pick up the name of the country you're living in.

Do you mean you live in Cork/Kerry/Wexford endof?

Kerry is in the southwestern region of the Republic of Ireland. 'Southwestern', isn't given a capital letter, unless it's at the beginning of a sentence because it's not a proper noun.

It was an autocorrect. Honestly who gives a toss if we’re talking about bigger issues? Petty...

You imagine being able to correctly name the country you live in is petty? That's almost as bizarre as claiming that Irish people don't fully understand the implications of the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution, we don't have to deal with NI, it's a British problem, unless we and the people of NI, decide otherwise.

('Southern' doesn't auto correct with a capital letter, unless it's at the beginning of a sentence.)

Words are important. I choose to call the north of Ireland just that, Arlene doesn't.
www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/no-such-place-as-the-north-of-ireland-dup-leader-arlene-foster-corrects-nolan-contributor-34807246.html
I've got those podcasts lined up thank you SilentlyScreamingAgain

I now live in Southern Ireland and am constantly judged as ‘knowing nothing’ because I am English. This is even though I never offer opinions. And yet ironically I’m far more aware and experienced than most Irish locals here that I know, who are all pretty much terrified of ever having to reunite or deal with NI

I can see why you are constantly judged! Can't get the name of the country right and think you know more than anyone else....you don't.

(and what could that have autocorrected from?)