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?

I watched that programme on BBC NI a couple of months ago about the TV adverts during the troubles- I thought I was relatively unaffected, but was in tears watching it when you suddenly realise how absolute abnormal it all was. And how very very sad.

I thought I was relatively unaffected, but was in tears watching it when you suddenly realise how absolute abnormal it all was.

I was the same Flossie until a couple of years ago when the BBC showed a documentary that focused on my streets. And then it all flooded back. The things I had seen, heard and experienced.

The next day after I dropped DS off to school, me and a couple of the other mums who had lived there went for coffee and talked and cried. Yes there was love and humour and yes, it was our normal. But it was a horrible, very fucked up normal. And we were sad and angry.

This reads like a journalist fishing for a lazy write up.

HalloumiGus
This reads like a journalist fishing for a lazy write up.

The problem with that is most other sources are biased, here you get a mix from both sides.

I was on the falls on Friday and became irrationally angry when I saw a number of tourists taking selfies with the murals in the back ground. Just seemed so thoughtless when you know the history of the area.

Where to start? So bad when it’s written down. Mostly it’s what made me able to cope - with literally anything in life. Edited low lights

• my father (police officer) killed on duty when I was 9 - he was 35
• saw my 18 year old youth leader with his legs blown off after a bomb on neighbourhood pub (age 11)
• bomb (accidental detonation) killed baby in my street (age 12)

My grandmas chapel blown up when I was staying with her ( we went to an earlier service) age 10) another accidental detonation- they stopped to go to mass en route to a job). Dm almost bought a house where there was a ladder against the wall when we viewed it - turns out IRA climbed the ladder to shoot the occupant dead in his bed. We didn’t go through with the same. Bizarrely j lived in a pretty safe area Married a protestant - we moved to London after uni- thought I was done with it. My now exH got a job in government and ended up on a hit list - cue panic buttons, under car booby trap detector, blast film on windows, video entry systems in our house followed by a transfer abroad. Never moving home but visit every month to see aged DM. A couple of funny moments

• the time my friend’s dad, a doctor on his rounds was hi jacked by a masked man at gun point . He protested that he was a dr. The jacker said “ah feck Dr XXXX, I didn’t realise it was you. Did you ever have one of those days - I’ll take someone else’s car”and got out of the car.

Then the time aged 12 a lion had escaped from the local circus and the army were deployed to search our school grounds. We were on lock down so the teachers told us there was a bomb in the school and the army were searching for it so we wouldn’t panic. Both true stories Bloody awful when you piece it all together- the incidents and fucked up normality of political angst, pier cuts, constant searches, guns and check points. Amazingly I’m quite normal and like a good pint of Murphy’s I’m not bitter

I’m so sorry you lost your dad like that, Daffodildainty. That’s an horrendous thing for a child and your poor mum to go through. 💐

I’ve always said that the scum that murder under the labels of IRA, UVF, etc, would still be murders, but doing it in the name of their ‘cause’ makes people think they have a ‘reason’ to be like that. A murdering scumbag would still be a murdering scumbag, even if there hadn’t been the NI troubles. They just wouldn’t have an umbrella to hide under.

It was ironic that, taking terrorism out if the numbers, we had the lowest levels of serious crime in the UK, during the troubles. We had less murders and serious crime, that were unrelated to the troubles. I hope that makes sense. That, to my mind, shows that most of the scumbags didn’t actually believe in their causes, but just wanted a ‘legitimate’ reason to kill.

I grew up in a very middle class mostly Protestant seaside town in the 1980s/1990s and never experienced any effects from the troubles in my childhood, other than us never going into Belfast city centre. There were plenty of Catholic families in my neighbourhood and we all played together, parents socialised etc. so although there was a Protestant primary school and a Catholic one in the town there was no real social divide that I ever saw. We saw what happened elsewhere on the news obviously but it wasn't our daily reality at all; it was a beautiful, safe place to grow up and I had a pretty idyllic childhood. I moved to the mainland for uni and have never moved back permanently but all my family are still there and it will always be 'home'.

Mainland - very out dated language!

Mainland tended to be, in my experience, used by Protestant people who thought of themselves as British, whereas Catholics would get pissed off at that, because they felt Irish and Mainland made NI seem like a tiny island.

Many of the NI Protestants I know still use "mainland" and wouldn't even think that it could be offensive, so it took me a while to pick up on it. I say GB now if I can't specify England / Scotland / Wales etc.

I’ve always said that the scum that murder under the labels of IRA, UVF, etc, would still be murders,

The Troubles certainly provided busy work and protective cover for our psychopaths, but it made murderers out of ordinary people too. And the murders were just the tip of a very shitty iceberg. I'm not "bitter" in the traditional NI sense. But I know who I blame and I fucking hate them. I blame the government of the day.

When citizens in a democracy demand equal rights the only appropriate response is to grant them. Not only did this not happen, the government made a total arse of the situation, based on male pride and violence that fucked us up so badly that it took decades and thousands of murders before we could get people to listen and sit down and stop shooting for a minute.

Off topic but when I try to order from UK websites that offer free delivery and then in the small print they say 'UK mainland only' I play stupid and say 'I don't understand, N Ireland isn't an island so surely it is included? I thought by mainland you meant the Scottish islands and the Isle of Wight'.

I don't play stupid, I just check with inadequately trained staff that I will get Free Next Day Delivery, then complain and get some money back when that does not turn out to be the case. AO are hectic for it.

I'm not really having a go at AO staff. I'm not sure David Davis knew NI was part of the UK when he took the Brexit job. He certainly seemed a bit there was a land border that would have to be sorted.

What are English, Scottish and Welsh thoughts on the Brexit and the border in NI?

I’ve always said that the scum that murder under the labels of IRA, UVF, etc, would still be murders,

Would you apply this to the people of South African townships as well?

Rubbish.

nonplussedinouterspace Try saying a bit more than rubbish. At least give your opinion on why you disagree with me.

Being born in 1965 I’ve lived through a large part of the troubles. Depending on ‘if you kick with the right foot Protestant or the left Catholic I’m sure you’ll get similar stories from both sides.
Basically it became a way of life and we just got on with it. I come from a Protestant background. My own experiences are being a 5 year old in traffic in a taxi going to the RVH on the Falls Road and seeing the off duty RUC man in the car in front getting his brains blown out. The gunman ran across the road and placed the gun behind the mattress in a baby’s pram. I’ve been beaten up for being in the ‘wrong area’ but we all have bad stories from both sides. We had our own special departure lounge in airports but not in a good way and when we went on holiday and people heard our accents we not accepted very nicely
It always amazed me in later years when we got talking to people on holiday and they found out where we were from the first question was what religion are you and what you ‘thought’ of The Troubles.
We are trying to move on as a country and have brought our son up not mentioning religion so much so that when he was asked in school if he supported Celtic or Rangers he said Celtic as he liked the colour green.

You're saying that the incredibly toxic, enormously influential and disadvantaging environments counts for nothing and these people were born for nothing better. That makes no sense. Especially since many killers have lost loved ones. Not that it's an excuse but yes, I think many would have chosen a different path in different circumstances. You clearly know nothing about the realities of living in the pressure cooker environment of some of these areas.

You clearly know nothing about the realities of living in the pressure cooker environment of some of these areas.

You obviously haven’t read my first post, but never mind. You have your opinion and I have mine. The majority of people that lived in those areas and never lifted a gun or bomb. Scum is scum and that’s what my experience tells me.

There's living there and there's being close enough to personal tragedy and trauma to be warped by it. Not everyone is affected the same way. Your dismissal of the fact that you're more likely to turn to violence if you've been affected tells me everything i need to know. It makes you feel better to know they're scum and you could never be like them. Fair enough. It doesn't make any sense but we believe what we need to.

Makes me want to vomit that Leave voters think GFA was easily come by and no biggie.

I was born in the early 70s and grew up in a predominantly Protestant village which was considered a safe place to live so had a large percentage of RUC living there. Several catholic families were burnt out over the time I was growing up. Family were heavily involved in the Orange Order (some still are)

Went to a Protestant grammar school and could have quite easily told you who the handful of Catholics were in the school.

Father did work for the "other side" and ended up on a hit list - checking under cars every morning and panics buttons installed in the house linked to the RUC.

First job was in Pizza Hut and last job was checking for devices before locking up for the night. Automatically opening bags when you went into shops so they could be checked and quite regularly having to be evacuated due to a bomb scare.

Remember going on school residential to Corrymeela on the north coast where we were paired with kids from a Catholic school to try and promote understanding and acceptance - one kid was pulled out of a discussion to be told his father had been kneecapped - he came back in and carried on with the rest of the week 😮

Knew where we could go and where we would be safe as well as the areas to avoid - worked for a time in Belfast and remember being diverted through the Falls Rd due to a bomb scare - tbh I don't think I was every as scared in all my life!

Normal was bomb scares, carrying ID, searches, being kicked out of home at any time of the day or night, armoured land rovers on the streets and army and police carrying guns. Chinook helicopters over head and no go areas.

Dh is English and I remember him coming over home for the first time - he's a burly 6 ft plus and he was petrified. To me it was normal.

I've tried explaining to the dc what my childhood was like and the eldest summed it up by saying that I grew up in civil war which looking back wasnt far from the truth but didn't feel like it at the time. It was normal!

Whojama- I think we maybe went to the same school- was the uniform green?

Flossie - no navy blue and red - think we may have been across the road from you!