Firstly, let me state for the record that I am a Northern Ireland citizen. And a Catholic.
Also a Catholic Unionist.
Secondly, I watched the first episode and thought it was lacking in some important details I believe is critical to a nuanced understanding of the situation as it was and, yes, still remains in Northern Ireland.
Take the all too brief mention of "one man, one vote", for example. You'd be forgiven for thinking that Catholics had absolutely zero votes completely.
But this is not quite how it was. To cut a long complicated story short, Catholics had the vote in UK Westminster Elections and the Stormont Elections - exactly the same as the Protestants. It was in the local council elections that Catholics were at a disadvantage. It wasn't that they couldn't vote (they could), it was more that nobody of any background could vote unless they were property owners. Protestants were, in practice, more likely to own property and so more of them could vote in comparison to Catholics.
This was the SAME system that had been used in Great Britain and the Irish Republic in previous decades. Northern Ireland took a bit longer to abolish that one, but they did so in November 1969, IIRC.
But "one man, one vote" was NOT something Provisional Sinn Féin and Provisional IRA were fighting for when they choose to murder.
Indeed, the then leader of the biggest Nationalist Party throughout the Troubles, SDLP's John Hume was exactingly clear that things of that nature were NOT justifiable reasons for Provo terrorism.
"The greatest injustice in the north of Ireland today is acts committed by paramilitary organisations like the IRA. The taking of human life is the greatest injustice.
Other injustices can be corrected. People can come out of prison, but people cannot come out of their graves."
In fact, a whole range of reforms had been put in place in the months before the Troubles, some enacted by the Northern Ireland Government itself.
To cut another long story short, that should have been enough to avert terrorist murder. But the Provos knew if those reforms were given time to be enacted and implemented fully....they could not get their terrorist campaign off the ground. So, engineering confrontation became important.
Another thing the first episode didn't address adequately is the existence of the IRA itself. You'd have been forgiven for thinking that the Provisionals only began AFTER the British Army was deployed.
The truth is more that the IRA had existed well before the Troubles. Their border campaign of 1956-1962 didn't even get a mention in the programme, but it is important information to know. Richard O'Rawe said the IRA was "dormant", but intelligence reports compiled separately by the Irish and Stormont Governments said "....the IRA was stepping up recruitment and intent on relaunching a campaign of violence in Northern Ireland, according to confidential cabinet files" in 1966.
Three years before the Troubles officially began.
The IRA split in December 1969 to become the Official IRA and the Provisional I.R.A. Their respective prefixes were merely temporary labels used to distinguish between them. A read in the IRA Green Book made by the Provisionals makes it clear they are the continuation of all the IRAs from before.
So, not something new as O'Rawe said. Provo members were certainly in the previous IRA.
Another thing I believe the makers could have developed more on AND challenged is the well known phrase "One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter".
It sounds reasonable and like a valid point of view, right? But it becomes untenable to hold that position when you realise the IRA was regarded as an illegal organisation on both sides of the border. The Irish Government saw the IRA as a threat to them also since the IRA themselves claimed to be the rightful and true Provisional Government of the whole island. That's in their Green Book. Both sovereign Governments regarded all the various terrorist groups as illegal.
Terrorist groups are always non-state actors as well, so legitimate armies aren't terrorist organisations.
It was Hume who powerfully said the IRA were fascists who would impose a dictatorship on the entire island if they were to win victory. And that "by destroying Ireland's people, they destroy Ireland".
That phrase "One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter" is a hugely problematic phrase anywhere in the world. It's a way of justifying the irrational and unjustifiable. But nobody was challenged on this one which is unreasonable.
I think the natural viewpoint is that all the Republican and Loyalist terrorists were certainly evil, immoral, undemocratic and brutal to their own communities too. But the same cannot be said of the Security Forces themselves. Yes, they made mistakes and serious strategic misjudgements, but they weren’t exactly evil. Considering there were 300,000 British Army personnel throughout Operation Banner, fewer than 1% of them were involved in killing throughout the period.
Terrorist organisations were far and away the main takers of human life irrespective of background.
All that said, the first episode is an alright summary of the early period. But viewers should be aware it skips right through them so important details are lost.
There's so many I could point out.
Hopefully, episodes 2 to 5 will be significantly better.