To ask what it was like living in NI during the Troubles

[ViscountTheVoraciousVampire]

Growing up and living in Northern Ireland during those turbulent years before the GFA, whether the GFA had much of an impact?

I watched the documentary last night, there was one years back on BBC1 on Panorama which looked at how the Catholics were treated. If you were around during the 1970's, the media portrayed it as if the Catholics were the problem, they were causing the problem. I remember as a child / teen, we were put off going places due to attacks in the Mainland. It's interesting to see a side that was never really reported. It must have been hell to live through for everyone?

From the little I know, I think it's the Historical Enquiries Team working for families to get answers to questions.

Is life better now, is there more integration? Do you think a hard border would reignite tensions? Did you want to integrate before, or was it a no go situation?

Growing up it was normal - it was all I knew - soldiers on the streets, bombs, shootings etc you didn’t really ever stop to think about it and life just went in.
It was possibly different for then generations above me who seen it before it started.
In terms of post gfa and now it still would depend where you live- I live rurally in a mixed area so there is some integration - it has certainly increased more in the last5 years.
My children attend an integrated school and I travel 18 miles for them to do so as I want them to have the benefit of growing up knowing everyone is the same.
My husband is from an area known as a “loyalist heartland” and we did not want our kids growing up listening to the sectarian nonsense he did.
I would be from a middle class Protestant background and growing up in my area yes it was seen as the catholics causing the problem - through older eyes being able to see the whole issues it’s not a religious issue it’s a political issue.
Not all Protestants are loyalists and not all catholics are republicans.
There are lots of background issues including the border but the catalyst was the catholic civil rights movement - back before the troubles they were treated appallingly and I would really suggest looking at these issues for the big picture. The issues were politicised by the republicans to help ignite their campaign for a united ireland.

The HET are part of PSNI and have not really been effective I don’t think they are widely supported and an independent review and investigation team would have been better.

I do think a hard border will cause tensions
But it will also cause a lot of problems for Normal people just trying to go about their everyday life for example my husband works 2 days in dublin and 3 days in Belfast - border checks will make this an even longer more difficult journey.

Th

If I were downtrodden like the Catholics were; I'm sure I would have rebelled too. NI was like apartheid era South Africa, but people can tell the difference between a white person and a black one. Protestants and Catholics look and sound the same so people couldnt get their head round the fact that it was exactly like SA.

I see no difference between McGuinness and Mandela. Both served sentences for "terrorism" whilst defending their communities and ended up in government.

Anywhere else in the world and it would be called Civil War, but it's in the UK so let's give it a twee name to minimise what it actually is.

Wow, McGuinness has a lot of blood on his hands and blood is blood. I'm Irish (from republic) but to tarnish Mandela by saying you cannot see a difference between him and McGuinness - that beggars belief.

My dad is a Protestant from east Belfast. We used to visit there a lot in the early 90’s and I vividly remember a lot of petrol bombs, helicopters, riot vans etc. My dad doesn’t say too much about the troubles although he did tell me that when he was about 5, he was almost killed by the IRA. They pulled over their car and my dad had a toy gun and they dragged him out of the car and put an actual gun to his head and my granda was screaming at them that my dad’s gun was a toy so they let him go.

As HuglessDuglas said, growing up it was normal. Looking back, you can see what a completely shitty normal it was. Children should not have to grow up with such levels of fear and violence.

"Normal" excuses for being late for school were:
Bombs/bomb scare
New barricades going up on streets overnight.
Home raided and destroyed, parents arrested.
Found a device under the car.
Famuly put out of home in the night.
Death and funerals.
Got stopped by police/army and questioned/bags searched on way to school.
Slept in.

When ^^ is accepted as normal for children's mornings, you're living in a pretty fucked up society.

Life is soooh much better now and there is a lot more integration and fun.

@JungWan - Mandela founded the paramilitary wing of the ANC. His hands were not exactly blood free either.

You know what they say - one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter.

School bus burned? School bus can't pick you up because there's a check point down the road blah blah.
It wasn't Sarajevo quite. But it wasn't easy either. Hth

Why have you got 2 threads?

My history is not your entertainment. What do you get from ghouling all over this?

Yeah, it was just normal to have the news filled with bombings and shootings back in the 80s. I grew up in a very rural area, though, so day to day it didn't really affect us. My parents were careful to shield us from the "this is all the Catholics' fault" stuff (we were Protestant). But culturally, we were very "middle class Protestant" - I knew nothing about things like Gaelic games, Irish language etc.

GFA was momentous, I think (although it happened just as I was becoming politically aware, which may have made it seem more significant). The fact that you could go to Belfast and not be watching every parked car in case it exploded; no more fire bombs in shops; no more army on the streets.

I remember having to make sure the curtains were pulled before putting a light on at night, in case there was a sniper.
Checking under the car, before getting into it.
Being searched by police/soldiers before getting through the barriers in the city centre, then again, going into the shops.
My father coming home on two occasions, shaken because another catholic worker was killed on the building site, for the crime of being Catholic. One of those workers was my young Catholic cousin.
Watching a young, battered and bloodied teenage boy being thrown out of the back of an army jeep.
Being asked what school I went to, so the other person could work out what religion I was.
Learning that my cousin was shot dead, because he was a Catholic. He was working in a ‘Protestant’ area, as he didn’t feel safe in a Catholic area, because he was previously in the British army.
Many, many times, being moved out of areas, as a bomb was about to go off. We used to stand at the cordon watching for the bomb to go off! Unbelievable that we took that for granted, even discussing the fact that their would be a ‘bomb damage’ sale and we should find out when it would be! Fucking bonkers now!

The was an absolutely heartbreaking documentary on channel four, last night. I was in tears, watching it. The British army, from that time, have a lot of blood on their hands.

This is an odd thread. There's plenty of published accounts of growing up in the Troubles out there. Go read some of them.

I live in NI. I moved away from sectarian areas deliberately. My daughter will attend an integrated school. My father in law is a Protestant minister who defines himself as Irish and would vote for a united Ireland. Things are very different and NI is a wonderful place to live. Sure, we have our issues. But so does everywhere.

Forgot to add this link. You might find it interesting, OP.

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/ballymurphy-massacre-inquest-troubles-siege-documentary-belfast-northern-ireland-a8527151.html%3famp

I was totally desensitised to it as others have described above. Army checkpoints, bomb scares, actual bombs. Even now you regularly hear about people being shot in the legs in parts of Belfast. I went to an integrated school however and always had a good mix of friends.

The GFA was momentous, I was down at the Kings Hall for the vote. The atmosphere was electric. I was born in the early 70s, so the troubles were all I had ever known. It felt like the Troubles were over at last.

I didn't grow up here (live here now though) and have heard some awful things from DH and MIL. DH still won't allow a light on in the house without the curtains being pulled and MIL still talks about trying to get to the school to pick her children up when there were bombscares/roads closed. The children had it drilled into them where to go and wait etc as she would have to get to them by back roads etc.

DH remembers having bags searched going into shopping centres. When they moved to a rural Protestant area (they were Catholics) all the neighbours hung out flags and revved their cars up and down outside the house flashing their lights etc to intimidate them. All are apparently on good terms these days!

It was tough apparently, but you didn't know any different (my parents grew up in them and we moved when I was a toddler).

There was a real us or them mentality and dating someone of the opposing faith was at best, unwise.

My parents were opposing religions and were met with threats, harassment etc as well as estrangement from family for a while.

JungWan Mandela directly killed lots of people too, noteably he planted a car bomb which killed 19 people. But this was not the only people he killed.

PositivelyPERF
That was beautifully put.
But no one will ever understand it, except us.

I was shocked and appalled by the documentary. To my shame when I was old enough to start becoming aware of the news I tended to take the side of the authorities as my default.

Where I lived, night times were really noisy. There were whistles and bin lids, engines roaring, dogs barking, lots of different types of banging and screams.

I am so glad that my DCs are not growing up in it.

I was born & raised in London but both my parents were Irish catholic Republicans & all their family lived in Ireland. NI was always presented as this place we should never go, & family friends who were from there would say you couldn’t go to certain areas, etc. It’s was interesting to see the very different reporting perscpectives & certainly in England it was presented as very one sided.

Also depends on your viewpoint my 2 cousins born and bought up in NI 1970/73 onwards had Avery very different life to my DB born and bought up in Hertfordshire 1968/70. My OH however sees it differently yet again as he was a Soldier there serving 2 long tours. He has ptsd and like many both military and civilian suffers daily (mostly nightly) it was a very hard time in the history of this whole country and for people to try and make light of it or find gratuitous entertainment from it is very distasteful

My boyfriend's family was on a hit list. They wouldn't open packages and checked under the car. They had a panic button.

It was normal to be stopped and find yourself eyeing up a polite soldier with a gun. My parents used to make pleasant conversation and carry cards identifying themselves as members of public bodies so they would be waved through as 'respectable people'.

'Bomb damage' meant there was a sale on.

There were lots of delays and endless drama. It never occurred to me that it could touch me personally; our life continued in a bubble. I was lucky.

I did experience rushing to get on the last train before roads were closed, diversions due to bomb threats and having someone in a balaclava sitting on the car because they felt it was cheeky to even try and get through an illegally closed road. We found this mildly interesting rather than traumatising which perhaps says a lot about life in NI.

There's a feeling that the younger generation don't care. This is partially true but a lot of people, old and young, still care very much and identify with sectarian groups. Perhaps more in rural areas and disadvantaged city areas.

The GFA helped considerably but a lot of this has happened since the GFA. Things have been falling apart at Stormont for a while now so anything rocking the boat would be the last straw.

A hard border would reignite tensions, no question.

I would add that our amenities were good, schools excellent and our crime rate extremely low. There are many parts of NI where daily life is largely untouched by politics - a very good standard of living is much more achievable there than in many more 'desirable' parts of the UK.

I also had a conversation in which a friend said 'Oh, he was a naughty fucker, he had to get his leg broke'.

Where else would this conversation happen?!