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?

Another one. My (posh) primary set us up with pen pals from the US. They thought that we were impoverished, living in a war zone with rations and tents kind of thing. My pen pal explained what cake was.
That's what they saw on TV about us.

With you now! My best friends all went to yours in the mid to late 90s.
We went to corrymella with a school in Blue. I don’t remember doing any actual cross community stuff as we were mostly all middle class kids anyway and the actual people who probably would have benefitted from the trip didn’t get to go! We didn’t form any ongoing friendships and the whole thing was a waste of time

m.youtube.com/watch?v=DXEry10iFtU

Looks like they still go! (I googled my school and the blue school and this immediately came up). When we were there we had a culture night and the blue school did an Irish dancing show. We didn’t have anything to show them in response...

Stacey dooley investigates has a great documentary on punishment beatings at the moment. On bbciplayer.

I watched it last night. Was interesting but a bit sensationalist.

nonplussedinouterspace Do I seriously have to start listing the family and friends I’ve lost, the fact I was burned out of my home and my brother nearly beaten to death. Would you like the list or shall we just agree to differ? You have your opinion and I have mine. Your determination to believe that I have lead some sheltered life, is boring me now, so I’m not going to bother answering again. It was all this crap attitude about who had the right to fight that got NI in all that shit in the first place.

Soldier at a check point questions a middle aged woman 'do you know Gerry Kelly' he enquired, 'no but I know his brother Ballykelly' she answered.
The soldier waved us on. Irony was missed.
Phew!! 🤔

I grew up in the Republic and we would hear things on the news and get stories from family or friends that went up North but it felt remote somehow. We obviously had our own interpretation of events but I didn't know anyone who supported the IRA, apart from some old diehards from back in the Irish Civil War. 'The Provos' were seem as gangsters by most people I knew, in contrast to how we saw the Old IRA from the 'Wind That Shakes the Barley' Michael Collins era.

It really surprised me when I lived in the UK that people would assume I supported the IRA / Sinn Fein. People seemed to know fuck-all about NI or Ireland - and judging by the current state of Brexit discussions that doesn't seem to have changed.

Living abroad (in the US now), people ask me about Northern Ireland sometimes, since so few people seem to know the difference between people from ROI and NI. I always ask them if they're ready for a 2 hour history lecture going all the way back to 1601 It used to annoy me and I used to talk about NI as if it was at a remove to me - yet the Border was less than 100 miles from my hometown, no distance at all really but it was a very localised conflict as everyone upthread has pointed out.

Horrible times, I hope they never come back. What shocks me most is that people in the non-NI UK never seemed to any idea of what the people of NI went through and they didn't seem to care either. Still don't, if the Brexit discussions are anything to go by.

My dad was a civil servant and was therefore considered a ‘legitimate target’ by the IRA. Every morning before he left for work he had to check under his car for bombs. My school was evacuated once because of an incendiary device in one of the buildings, and sometimes it took hours to get home from school because a bus had been hijacked, or there was a bomb scare in Belfast city centre so buses couldn’t get out. We were used to it, and got on with life, but in retrospect we probably had low level fear and mistrust of the time. NI is transformed now, and a wonderful place. Regardless of what the politicians say over here say, most of us are fully aware that the IRA has never gone away, and sometimes the peace is uneasy. Nobody wants a return to those days.

I should add, the thought of my kids growing up in that environment horrifies me. So many good families moved to England and Scotland during the Troubles, and I would probably have done the same.

Our school went to Corrymeela too. There were some children of Free Presbyterians whose parents didn't allow them to go as they weren't allowed to talk to Catholics. And these were 'nice middle class families'. Mind you, I don't think the parents had thought it through as there were quite a lot of Catholics at our school and they were allowed to talk to them

A family member was given 48 hours to leave the country or they would end him by the UDA, his crime he was married to a girl who was methodist but converted to be catholic

He returned several years after the GFA

My first name is the irish spelling but I always gave it as english sounding as I could as I spent many evenings/nights on the side of the road while car was radioed in and my details were radioed in.

In later years I worked in Belfast and one of my colleagues when we did public relations work, she was from the protestant community and I from the catholic community so depending on where we were who took the lead and who kept their mouth shut. I know my voice sounds really southern Ireland although I grew up within 5 miles of the border.

Shit. The Stacey Dooley show is in my manor.

I can't see this being good for the property prices round here.

Na- you are fine- westies don’t like to move out of that area particularly! House prices already higher than you would expect for that very reason. And the hostels have people queuing up to get in as very sought after. Not a joke.

We don't like to be too far away from our mums.

And aunties and cousins and grannies......

Grew up on the border in the 80s/90s and I saw almost all there was to see (I could write a book) I never knew any different and didn’t know that people lived any other way. I even found Belfast ‘quiet’ when I moved to Uni.

Bombs, shootings - including sniper attacks, mortar attacks, abductions, punishment beatings, road blocks lasting days (extra GCSE exam papers had to be helicoptered in to a local school at one stage as kids couldn’t get to their own grammar schools)...a world apart.

I’d hate to see Brexit re-open the healing wounds.

I live in England but most of my family are from NI. We went over most school holidays to stay with our grandparents and cousins in Belfast. The tricky part was my dad was in the RAF so could never come with us even to family weddings and on the one occasion I do remember him coming over I can remember him checking under the car. My cousins were never ever allowed out at night or were we when over ( nice part of Belfast ) but had mixed religion parents. I can remember hearing bombs and gun fire way in the distance but never thought anything of it. Love love love NI beautiful country and people but like most it was the norm. My cousins used to tells all sorts of horrendous stories of the troubles.