AIBU to ask you who started the Troubles in the North of Ireland?

[1FineDane]

If you watch this new BBC documentary, what is your answer?
I know British people think the IRA started the whole shit, but this is a BBC documentary and fairly unbiased.

I hope you watch it to realise what history there is in Northern Ireland.

www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0008c47/spotlight-spotlight-on-the-troubles-a-secret-history-episode-1

This is the third time this has been brought up.
I mentioned that it was fairly unbiased after watching the fucking thing.

Which clearly none of you people have!!! Watch it! FFS. Some people......

Believe me, I'd be the first to say if it was biased. I watched it and concluded that it was in fact, a fairly unbiased documentary.

The only reason I knew about the documentary was because I read an Irish Times article about it. Again, a biased newspaper to an extent, but one of the more highbrow broadsheets in Ireland.

That they didn't diss it made me interested enough to watch it.
When I did watch it, I could see why.
By unbiased, I mean it's covering both sides. There's coverage of Martin McGuinness showing guns to young kids, equally there's coverage of the RUC brutally attacking Civil Rights protestors.

WATCH THE FUCKING THING AND THEN COME BACK TO ME

Voila, Isabelle - I would understand if this was happening in the 80s or if he was planning on marching down the Falls Road singing God Save The Queen. But it was 2013!

In that case I join you in wondering exactly what was going through his head. I don't know if we should be laughing or crying!

The killing of two soldiers in 1988 was horribly depressing -
m.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/fr-alec-reid-death-it-was-a-photo-that-shocked-the-world-but-from-that-dark-day-a-sliver-of-light-appeared-on-the-horizon-29777931.html
possibly because of the details of the killing which were cruel and evocative photo of the priest. Supposedly contributed to the start of the peace process.
What I can't understand is the cruelty of the kneecapping, kidnapping and disappearances, random shootings and the bombs which always caught up innocent people. The cruelty is mind blowing imv - between people of supposed Christian religions. Incomprehensible, as is the sectarian bullshit which goes on today. Nothing justifies the cruelty and hatred that continues today.

I think the BBC are far less biased when looking at historical issues as opposed to current ones. The fact that they are reporting this accurately is a very good thing.

Like Hillsborough - how many documentaries have there been in the last few years highlighting the cover up and the way the fans were wrongly blamed? Yet just 10 years ago most people believed that the fans were hooligans and that they were robbing the dead. The families had to fight for decades for justice, and for a very long time they were just ignored. Sorry, slightly off topic but time does seem to make a big difference when it comes to accurate reporting.

Of course with social media today it would be a lot harder to cover up events like Bloody Sunday and Hillsborough, because there would be tons of evidence of what actually happened.

straycats I can understand all you write as I as a Protestant had the same experience. I had to walk home from school BHS, through a predominately Catholic area and was beaten up a few times wearing my school uniform.
My sister who was going out with a Catholic lad were both attacked by his own people and had her arm broke. They split up soon afterwards.
Hopefully it’s something our own children won’t get to experience.
Your name, School attended and area you lived in were and still are used as good indicators of which religious side you come from. Another thing that will maybe surprise people on the Mainland.

@1FineDane

No, I won’t watch it (and can’t anyway as I’m not in the UK). Even if it presents a wholly pro-Irish analysis, it’s still not “fairly unbiased”. You expect readers to be less intelligent than you, not as capable of critical thinking or less capable of nuanced thinking than you. Your analysis/explanation in your last post is very clunky, to say the least.

I don’t need to watch it. It’s the BBC. Even their nature documentaries are biased. Their drama. Their news. Their sport. It’s all biased one way or another. It’s preposterous to think otherwise. The very fact you can suggest anything on the BBC can be “fairly unbiased” says it all.

And fuck off with telling people what to do. This is a public forum, a public thread. Calm the fuck down.

You can't watch it, then don't fucking comment. How's that for unbiased for you?

@Therugbymum sorry to hear what you went through. Are you still living in NI now? What's the feeling amongst people there about Brexit and the future? Must be scary times?

@1FineDane do you know if the first episode is being repeated anytime before the second one airs?

I've a link to the iplayer version of it - you can watch it if you have internet access. No idea if it's being aired a second time? Sorry not much more help.
I'm interested to watch the rest of the series. So far, to me it seems fair and unbiased and just reporting of the facts - it's not biased towards either side. We'll see if it gets worse as time goes on and the series progresses.

They've interviews with veterans from all sides.

First line of my OP @7salmonswimming

If you watch this new BBC documentary, what is your answer?

Yet you felt the need to comment........... Stick your oar elsewhere. I can think of a few places personally........

I think BBC player is geo blocked though, I'm in the ROI.

I can watch RTE over here Arya. Have you tried the link? You might just have to sign up?

I'm pretty sure I could watch BBC when in Ireland, though could be talking through my arse on that one!

Ok google suggests you need to be in the UK to watch the iplayer. Then there's loads of links to VPN (it pretends you're in the UK for e.g.).

Do you have Sky Catchup thingy? It might be on that. It's definitely worth a watch.

This is the article that prompted me to watch it. Maybe if you comment on there you'll find a way to watch it.

www.irishtimes.com/culture/tv-radio-web/in-the-north-nothing-is-ever-exactly-as-it-seems-to-be-1.4014203?fbclid=IwAR0q7mdsxlzUtvD_Y1AUWxpHvYohitPdiJTZp6CDVGBz5BCu6riGgmfscrA

I worked with a girl in the 1980’s whose husband was a British Soldier. At one time he was based in Northern Ireland.
He went windsurfing, but drifted out further than he meant to. He was picked up by the Southern Irish coastguard, but they said they couldn’t take him back to the Republic and had to liaise with the Northern Irish coastguard to get him.

Try reading up on stellamarissecondary.com it gives a good insight. It got so bad that, our buses were routinely stoned and metal sheets replaced glass windows, then they started not turning up and we had to change out of our uniforms, or run the risk of being beaten up. Bus drivers who hurled abuse whilst wearing their UVF or UFF badges, it was routine for the driver to move off before you'd barely got on and I'd to throw my sister on, in at least several occasions,she was only 6 years old.

@Frenchmom Sounds like a Bond movie

I don't know why Irish and English schools wear uniforms. Dd was in France recently and they don't wear uniforms. You don't see it on the continent.