I went into the Military young, brainwashed and willing. I was posted to Northern Ireland on both short and long Tours and returned older, wiser and saddened at the things that man can do to his fellow man. I met good and bad people from both sides and often had a creeping feeling that some of the things we did there were sometimes not right. The memories sometimes still steal my sleep - even some 40 years on! A line from one of my Songs: (writing them is one of my coping mechnisms) "and we think we fight for what is right It depends who`s side you`re on But who will dry your children`s tears When their Daddy`s dead and gone. I wish peace and prosperity to Ireland and all her people.
To an extent. Had I knew then what I know now I would have left after 3 or 4 years and invested my time and effort into something else. Having said that the army forms you and equips you with a certain mindset that civilians seldom have...and the Cameraderie is second to none. :-)@@jackietreehorn5561
Yet here you are peddling the fallacy of British neutrality, this mantle of benign adjudicator , to which you apparently lay claim is at the heart of the issue. Next you will repeat the lie that the British army went to aid the nationalist population, when the truth was that you went to shore up the failed sectarian statelet which Britain had spawned. You were anything but the , unfortunate, pig in the middle. Nevertheless good luck with your songwriting.
A soldier has a duty to refuse an order which he understands to be unlawful or which goes against God's law , as such you are obligated to disclose , where it is safe to do so, that which you know.
Having lived through the troubles as a child, teenager and young man watching this now i notice that the soldiers or Brits as we called them were just young lads themselves thrown in at the deep end of a centuries old political problem they knew nothing about. God bless all that lost their lives whether they be from a Nationalist/Unionist or young soldier from the British mainland, at the end of the day they were all someone's son or daughter, brother or sister, such a waste.
If the british just stayed at home.Lots of british young men died for their glorious empire. What are they doing in Ireland only trying to maintain a hold on a foreign land.
The soldier talking coming up to the 9 minute mark basically sums up one of the many reasons their presence was totally resented there, talking about 'winding 'em up, pulling their armpit hairs, making them wait around, miss buses etc......a bullied people always have a breaking point
Hope you got the chance to get over to Ram's island on your short visits. Still has carvings from the yanks who stayed at Langford lodge around the 2nd world war. It has its own round tower monument too. But hey you probably didn't get much on R and R in Ireland.
@@TommyBahama84 100%! Anyone who purposely harms anyone else is scum. The IRA had no business bombing innocent people. They're fight was with the terrorists in their country. I'm sure the poor people in that pub that night didn't even know what their troops were doing in Ireland 😢
Being from the south and having relatives which we would often visit in derry my lasting memory as a small child was continually having rifles pointed at me by british soldiers. Inches away through car windows at checkpoints
Probably an oldish vid...anyway I've watched vids from all sides,and all have a sad story to tell..it's got to the point,where I can't even watch them anymore..but anyway,we hope for better times,and I think it's over,hopefully
@@jangowan5742 we all do jan. The anti Irish/ catholic bigotry needs to addressed both in the north of ireland and west of Scotland. The UK is the only western government who not only turns a blind eye but actively funds these forms of discrimination through the orange order and 12th of July 'celebrations'. The pandering to blind hatred has to stop.
I remember going down south on holiday as a kid and having my das car torn apart and left in pieces at the side of the road by the British army . Have a nice trip folks... Terrible times!
@@bpd1111 Yeah it is disgusting that this video sympathising with a known terrorist , should still be on here. The media may try brainwash people. But the only terrorist in this was the British army. Nothing more than a bunch of unintelligent war hungry scum in uniform. Just look at their football fans. Wrap them up in an army uniform, rather than an England Jersey and that is what we had in beautiful Ireland.
Many many years ago, went to Ireland when the troubles were on. A British soldier heard my accent (Australian) and said "you don't belong here Laddie." I replied with "well, from I've been told, your lot are as welcome as herpes at a swingers party." The lads (my cousins...) danmed near fell over laughing. The British bloke had a chuckle also.
I was in Belfast City Center when a soldier stepped out from a doorway, I wasn't used to soldiers in full battle dress coming out of the shadows and I hadn't seen him. so I jumped a little. He asked me where I was from and I told him that I was a Yank. "Watch yourself around here. This isn't the States you can't do just anything you want to do.".
@@ProfileP246 indeed, those paddies delusion. Act of terrorism in their eyes is freeing their country? Calling us murderers for destroying hostile terrorist threats? Its like watching a deluded barking dog try and tell us why it isn't bad. Rule britannia 🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧
@Brad pitt Killing and maiming was 80% republican, Prod's were no better, but cause and effect. PIRA terrorized their own communities and murdered many of their own as well as thousands of innocents. Terrorists and criminals who achieved nothing at all.
@@ProfileP246 you create evil. Wonder what would happen if Irish soldiers start laying down the law on the streets of London And I'm totally against any war or violence
@Muhammad What are you talking about, it's Britain, the majority of the ulster population want to remain so until this day. Are you suggesting that any nation should surrender to terrorism? Even amongst the catholic population the IRA were a tiny minority, never more than 300 active service terrorists at any one time and they terrorised the catholic communities they operated within.
When I was a child, 9 or 10, we had a wee hut set up in Belfast. As it was an area the squaddies could maybe feel a bit more easy in they could relax and were decent as to a pack of wee scallywags. They were giants in our eyes. Looking back I realize they were young men earning a living and not get killed. Still giants. by the railroad crossing near the twinkle Brummy lads. Respect.
@@murphy9924 I can’t help but love the fact that the loyalists are now “northern” Ireland’s greatest security threat. Have fun with the beast of your own creation.
@Mark o'Neill..they would still be as bitter and in denial,and would say they were "patriotic"lol....I just don't understand why the u.n wasn't sent in?..would have been a better alternative
My mate was sent there. He was little more than a kid fighting for the British army. They got him to raid houses in the middle of the night and drag innocent men from their beds. He still hasn’t gotten over the trauma he caused, and his own trauma. Poor bloke. He now can’t stand all this flag waving nationalism.
Politicians who would soil themselves if they had to do the same type of work they were sending these kids out to do.....they’re the ones who deserved the hatred. Soldiers joined up sometimes because there was no work in their own home towns and needed a wage. I feel terrible that some soldiers really were kids when they were sent over the water while the politicians sat in their offices eating biscuits and drinking tea with no thought for the poor souls on both sides of the conflict. I went to school with a guy who joined the army as a bagpiper, we live in the Scottish highlands, and he ended up leaving the army when he was told his unit was going to be heading over the water. He just couldn’t handle the thought of it and I don’t blame him.
@@Highland_Moo I applied to join RAF in 87, I was asked "Well son, you are from an Irish background how do you feel about going to Ireland? You realise you could be asked to pick up a rifle and back up an army patrol", Me : "No I won't be doing that" ROFL..........Bless.............
@@f.dmcintyre4666 ..a friend of mine from s.ireland joined the paras at Aldershot,but during bayonet training,the bags of sand were referred to as "paddies,lol
Tough one. The English young lads have been actively and aggressively recruited by the British Government - most of them are poorly educated and had little or no options for employment - it was the only option for them, they didn't know what was really in store for them when they landed in Belfast. Now on to the trickier part .. they shouldn't have been there in the first place and only served to prolong the violence that ultimately came to England itself. I don't blame these lads, I 100% blame the British Government of the time - for not giving these lads more options for their life which ultimately scarred them. No one wins in war. No one.
@Dibley8899 the trick is to catch it early and pay off all the people causing trouble. They left it too late and it created a vacuum. Bit like what's happening in Gaza Israel. Here's my tuppence worth living in Both countries England and Ireland and understanding and liking both nations... Sometimes governments want war. Sometimes governments like to prolong war for as long as it suits them.
a friend of mine served in the army in the 70's 80's he was station in northern ireland in 79 i think he was there twice .. he was using the SLR rifles then ...
I was a crew member on a ship in 1968/9, On the ship a lad from Northern Ireland and a engine room rating from the south... they disliked each other, for what I couldn't understand...sometime later I realised why..They were okay with the rest of the crew, but between them a divide that could never be reconciled...
The guy on 47.34 minutes has real humanity, do they learn about there’re history in Ireland 🇮🇪 in English schools?? I can tell you first hand that they don’t, I’m Irish and proud to be but in the mide 80,s I lived and worked in London and any of the English lad’s I worked with had absolutely no problem with me Being Irish. I worked with a lovely fella from Sheffield and he actually taught that the whole of Ireland was a war zone with British soldiers patrolling the streets of Dublin and bombs going off everywhere, I had to explain to him what was really happening, quite obvious he had no education about brithish imperialism. I was shocked that someone from England hadn’t a clue about what was really happening in Northern Ireland, I’m pretty sure the British soldiers who served in the north hadn’t a clue about why this war was happening
Did you tell him about the fact that the IRA was a violent extremist group just like the UVF too, or did you do the whole MOPE syndrome disneyfication of IRA violence and paint them in a rosy light, and pass off their victims as deserving of their fate as "casualties of war" like shinnerbots regularly do?
I'm from County Louth. I served a total of three years on Op Banner. I knew why I was in Northern Ireland along with the countless other soldiers. You also forgot or don't know that thousands of soldiers serving in the Province were local lads and lasses, some from both sides of the divide. I was there to support the RUC to defeat terrorism from both sides, Republican and Loyalists. Witnessing the aftermath of a Republican bombing in which a young lady was looking down at the bloody stump that was her foot you then realise that both sides targeted innocents from the same side. Thugs, cowards and murderers.
I was a Paratrooper who served in Northern Ireland - Belfast - on the Peace line. In Boundary Street to be exact (off Falls Road). Catholic community - they were simply normal people who wanted protection from the Protestant vigilanties. They were grateful for our stay in what was one of the Bin disposable units for that area. Of course they left at our request (Bin Refuse Reposal Unit) and we set up a base - installed showers etc. The locals around Boundary street I have to say (All Catholics) were really nice to us soldiers. Cups of tea etc. We even had our own bar for off duty personnel which a lot of Catholic girls would frequent - we had a disco and lassies from as far as the Balymurphy housing estate would venture - They were the great times - I will always treasure them. Then it stopped as the PIRA started killing - end of disco. No more Rosaline from Ballymurphy. Your looking at 1970.
The reason was the Falls curfew army murdered William Burns Zbigniew Uglik a journalist also my dads friends dad Patrick Elliman they drove a Saracen over Charles O'Neill injured 60 civilians destroyed my families house and hundreds of others that is what ended the honeymoon and PIRA started to attack the army
Peace to you. From a former American Marine with 'Ireland Forever' on one arm and a Fighting Irishman on the other. The children of both sides deserve better.
Yeah great story but the fact is you had NO business being in Ireland. Every single death by both is a direct result from the British (you) occupying Ireland.
People in nationalist ghettos didn't wake up one day and decide to shoot at soldiers.....they wanted to hit back and the forces that degraded their community and smothered their right to be Irish
We should of done that tour..and at the last moment, after learning the area, we were moved to Middle Town/Keady, then Cookstown. That was a screwed up time. I had one of yours on my team in the LAS and he described a hit that would of been us. Sorry for your loss
Did 2 tours, 1984, for 6 months, 1986 another 6 months. Royal Corps of Transport 84 in Belfast, then 86, might be 87 with the Kings Regiment. I just was so sad that this conflict ever started, but it did, and I WAS not impressed of all its principals. As we all know, humans can be fine also humans are the most evil things on this planet came to mind.
Both sides felt it dearly, right or wrong doesn’t matter because violence is not the correct path no matter what. I feel bad for both the British and the Irish. As a die hard catholic and also and ex soldier I feel as though the goals of the south could have been achieved peacefully over time. I just feel terrible for all of the families that have lost someone. Lest we forget for both sides of the fence
Violence is sometimes the only way you can persuade someone. Just saying doesent matter if its right or wrong it will always be a thing and it sometimes more often then not works.
The goals of the invading british were not achieved peacefully but you expect everyone else not resort to violence. What we had was taken by force and only right that it be taken back by force. Do you think if we said to the british "Go home please as we want our land back" they would have gone and brought their planters with them?
One of those things I always fond confusing is that soldiers in Guerilla armies seem to accept the fact that death or injury is an outcome of joining an army and British soldiers seem stunned when it happens them. Wonder do they think it's just a natives shoot with no return fire or something?
Padraig, have you ever noticed that every single soldier, without exception, either from the British or American army that is shot or killed was a hero while every single IRA volunteer was a terrorist and a coward? Never once did the IRA manage to get one single lackey.What are the odds?
This is one of the best documentaries I've seen on how The Troubles took its toll on our soldiers. I was in the Andrew and served in the South Atlantic in 82 and i found it ultimately terrifying. The difference was i knew who my enemy was and we knew when we were going to be attacked (although knowing you were minutes away from a bomb or that an exocet was on its way isn't conducive to much laughter) Like the young private said, for me it was nothing to do with "Queen and Country ", it was a job and more for them than me, a dangerous one but probably a just one. My absolute respect for everyone involved in this magnificent piece of journalism.
Obviously this is a one sided view of a situation given by soldiers who weren't born in that land and probably don't have any historical or political context of the conflict. They only know what they're told . They can't say any different.
A mate of mine told me a story once when they used to go out on patrol, this bloke had trained his dog to attack anyone wearing combats and they would all laugh, this day they brought along a war dog and when their dog was released the war dog was released, it was a predictable outcome but I felt sorry for the dog because it was only doing what it had been trained to do.
@@formhubfar after WW2 German Shepherd breed was renamed Alsatian because of the anti German sentiment at the time.... remember reading that and thought was an interesting fact
@@formhubfarthey used springer and Labrador sniffer dogs FFS ,they didn't use alsatians , they used lead and rubber bullets against stone throwers or crowd control ( kids tossing stones at them ) so he's telling you porkies mate .
What was the point of patrolling South Armagh? It seemed they were not so much patrolling as sneaking around trying to avoid getting spotted themselves.
@Ichnid Mcgonagle All Out War is how the Nazis or Soviets would have approached this conflict. The Brits seem to have used NI as a training ground for dealing with urban riots on the Mainland.
@Ichnid Mcgonagle but surely if Hitler had invaded Ireland, he would have came in with tanks and heavy artillery? His aims were power and conquest, very different from the British Army trying to 'keep the peace' which was a disaster of a different type, in all fairness, of course. To be fair, Stalin never seemed to have any interest in taking over mainland Europe, including the UK and Ireland..... I am looking at the wider picture here, far beyond an internal conflict like Ireland. Incidentally, Germany bombed both the North and South of Ireland . With aeroplanes, no less, far more destructive in a short space of time , than even the worst of British oppression. The Third Reich only lasted for 12 years, but look at the devastation created in so short a time. The death toll of 1939-45 [a mere six years] far eclipses even the worst atrocities of hundreds of years of the Irish conflict. WW2 could have spread to Ireland---and in fact, it did. I am sure you are very passionate and knowledgeable about Irish History but the conflict is sadly just one of many others in human History , and History shows us even worse situations than Ireland have came along, in relatively recent History.
@Ichnid Mcgonagle I meant that since the most recent Troubles, from 1969 onwards, the Brits were trying to 'keep the peace' in comparison to the Soviets or Nazis, who would have waged All-Out War. For example, the Sovs or Nazis would have used machine-guns on rioters, extreme, All-Out War methods more on par with WW2 .The Brits were 'keeping the peace' [yes, a farce, I know, I personally though the whole approach was a disaster ] compared to resorting to Heavy Artillery [although Churchill once threatened Michael Collins with 'aeriel bombardment'.
@Ichnid Mcgonagle that guy is chatting pure waffle comparing a world war to a civil war decades after it ended and then decides to compare Stalin and hitler to it all 🤣
My auntie from England thought the UN should've kept the peace in northern ireland. Because the British soldiers doing it made it look like the british were policing the original problem.
@@gooner72 It's a divided society, don't pretend you don't know that. The British Army needed to be neutral when deployed in 1969. They failed abysmally.
Poorly educated guys told they as the invaders are the good guys and the local volunteers resisting are the bad guys ..... Britains policies towards Ireland have been and remain an utter disgrace
And what does that make the IRA volunteers? Not exactly brain surgeons were they? Just gullible young men bred into a circle of hate. Lads did not join the British army to do tours of NI. It was just a chore and each had to take their turn. They had better things to be doing.
@@Kaiserbill99 if u had of lived in nationalist areas you would understand why they where volunteers. Britans dirty war in Ireland has came to light in the last number of years. By fact not by fiction oul hann 🇮🇪
@@paulhughes4081 The only reason the army were there in the first place was to keep the peace between the two sides of the divide. The army policed Northern Ireland. And this is where the nationalist community come unstuck with their logic. Were the IRA at war or terrorist operatives? It seems to depend on circumstances. Soldiers caught in a bombing were victims of war but IRA operatives killed in Gibraltar were "murdered". If it was war then the army were entitled to go in with a big stick and intern suspected members and their families. It is just as well for the IRA that the UK government treated the IRA as terrorists subject to the law and not as a legitimate army; otherwise it would have been the shortest war in history. British democracy and rule of law rather ironically gave the IRA the oxygen to breathe. I doubt a Saddam or Putin would have hesitated to snuff out the IRA in quick time.
@@paulhughes4081 No-one doubted the IRA's ability to kill but that does not make them an army. They were shunned by the very country they purported to represent. I have no doubt army intelligence was good enough to be able to identify most operatives and their associates. Because Britain treated the IRA as criminals subject to the rule of law then burden of proof was required to convict. In times of war the same principles do not apply. The Troubles would not have lasted in different circumstances. The Provos were clearly terrorists however. As much about organised crime as political agenda. They chose violence when political recourse was still available to them. Republicans retained the right to political assembly and political representation but chose violence.
Loses both legs and a kidney yet still manages to call it an “accident”. That’s s special sort of guy, hope you’re still going Richard, and your children are grown and making you proud. TBH, throughout my time 1978-2008 Royal Marine Commando I count myself fortunate to have completed my time with just internal bling that couldn’t be removed, but causes issues at airports, but whether it’s Northern Ireland, Iraq, Kuwait, Afghanistan and everywhere else I didn’t appreciate just what it had done psychologically. Cheerfulness in Adversity is the RM motto. But it all takes its toll especially when any of my men were injured/killed and then there’s a letter to write. Strange as it might seem it wasn’t until being diagnosed with terminal cancer that the severity of my PTSD became known. After a long period out cold with anaesthesia apparently I attacked the medical staff, not my best moment, but they understood and forgave me. I’ll always be grateful for never having remarried or had kids as the anger just became worse the longer I stayed, but the longer I remained the better I was at hiding it.
Seeing Divi’s flats again was weird, last time I went to Belfast (post service) there was only Divis tower left, my buddy got injured in a bomb blast in Divi’s flats, a volunteer on detachment from the royal artillery was killed and 2 innocent local kids, I was lying in a bunk, reading Shibumi in north Howard street mill when the bomb went off. Hope one day they can all live in peace
That lad certainly was a cheeky chappie, but you do need a few of those to keep you going I feel. Right when it really hits the fan, and you feel all hope is lost, will be precisely when they start tugging on armpit hairs without a care in the world.
back in my time in ireland as a cook i saw a guy return to base having been stabbed in the leg by a girl of about 10 or 12 i watched a group of lads go out in a landrover , non returned, the landrover was little more than twisted metal, i saw a guy return , having shot two gun men , as he sat giving his statement he began banging his head on the table , hed been told the one chap was the father of 4 and he was the kids only parent , the wife was killed some years earlier in a blast. .
@@ROALD. No one in my platoon considered it home. or any of the soldiers on the vid. They all talk about going home. NI is not Britain.The sooner they all fuck off the better.
Ireland must be the only country in the western world that’s still occupied by a foreign power, I wonder if these soldiers ever wondered why or for what reason they were in Ireland especially since the vast majority of Irish people thoroughly resented their presence there . Imagine if Irish troops occupied Yorkshire and stopped people going about their business every day sometimes 7 or 8 times per day and then at night they’d break down your door and wreck your house saying they were looking for arms. If it took thousands of armed troops to maintain the British presence in Ireland then that should have been a major hint they were in a country where they weren’t welcome , the English people come to Ireland on holidays and they’re always welcome as long as they respect our country and the people but never as occupiers.
If you define an "occupation" as a democratically elected government voting in multiple referendums to stay with a nation, along with the long term option to leave if the majority wants, combined with some of the lowest levels of racial and religious discrimination in the world (post troubles), then sure I guess
@@ravenmusic6392 Ireland, as one country, voted overwhelmingly for Independence in 1918. As a result, the British created a new ‘country’ designed to ensure those in the North east who were against Independence were a majority in the newly invented statelet. How would feel if Post Brexit, David Cameron ignored the result and partitioned England along Leave and Remain lines, with a little remain State Called Southern England staying in the EU against the wishes of the overall majority of the country? I suspect you would feel aggrieved at the mutilation and division of your country.
I used to be pro IRA then i found out my great grandfater died serving in the Boar war with the Enniskillen Fusillers it brought home to me the wrongness of war RIP all those kiilled in Ireland who ever they are
Even here in West Germany, the IRA planted bombs. I remember one at the Joint Headquarters in Mönchengladbach. I was there often to visit a friend on his shift at the fire department. The firemen, except for the top floor, were German.
@@johnboothr1 🤣🤣🤣 how can't you mindless morons understand the cause of the conflict? There is no IRA if there is no occupation and oppression but tell yourself all the lies you want to justify this unjustifiable conflict
"We invaded their land. But we expected them to be nice." I worked with some colonels many decades later from the troubles. I always just wanted to ask him. What was it worth to shit in another mans field?
Questions: 1. How long was the tour of duty in NI for British soldiers? 2. Did the soldiers get combat pay or any other additional hazard pay? Top choice of next assignment? 3. Did soldiers volunteer for duty in NI or was it just the luck of the draw. British soldiers had duty stations in Germany - no doubt a much better assignment than NI. 4. How much time off/leave did soldiers receive? FWIW: If I'm a British soldier from say Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham or even London the last thing I would ever want to do is join the British Army and get posted to Northern Ireland. See the world!
1. Unaccompanied 4 months - e.g west Belfast or south Armagh. Accompanied 2 years. In my experience the 4 months was easier than the 2 years - trying to live a “ normal life” when the threat is constant is straining. 2. Not at all. 3. You go where you are sent, infantry battalions get rostered . You could volunteer for jobs in Ulster, for example, your battalion is part of a division, if an ulster based battalion was under manpower strength, then they’d request additional manpower. Also, specialist units took volunteers 4. 4 month tours, normally 3 days of R and R. In theory on two year tours “ normal” holiday but that never transpires. I did a variety of jobs in Ulster between 1985 through to 1989. Between 1987-89 the violence escalated in the extreme ( ballyk, loughgall, Corporal killings, Gibraltar Op Flavius, Milltown Cemetery, etc etc) and our 659 troops were pushed to the max. On this tour I got 19 days off shore in two years. In retrospect it was quite straining on the nerves, but you get on with it.
1. In the 70's Emergency Tours were normally 4 months but could stretch to 6 months. Accomodation was typically in cramped portacabins or run down and disused factories etc. Accompanied Tours were ,I think , for 18 to 24 months. On these wives could accompany soldier husbands and live in married quarters within the confines of the military camp. Needless to say they were to the less dangerous parts of the province. 2. Combat pay? Haha, yes we got an extra 50p per day, though if your unit was normally stationed outside of the UK, ie Germany, then you would lose the LOA (Local Overseas Allowance) for that area. In effect you were taking a substantial pay cut to temporarily leave Germany and serve in Northern Ireland. As for 'Top choice of next assignment', not a chance. You and your unit would simply return from whence you came and carry on life as normal. Within 12 to 18 months chances were you'd be going through Ireland Training again in readiness for another deployment. I did 1972/3, 1974, 1976 and 1978. 3. If your unit was posted to Northern Ireland, you went, no ifs and buts, and why would there be? It's the Army we joined. A small rear party would remain at your normal location to keep things ticking over admin and accomodation wise, and wives and families would remain there too unless you were on an accompanied tour. The only people I knew to volunteer for Ireland were the Ghurkas I was on a course with, and they were refused. That said, most lads wanted to go and serve with their mates anyway. 4. An average day on an Emergency tour would consist of 8 hours patrol (2 or 3 x 2hr patrols plus briefings/debriefs, meals etc; 8hrs QRF (Quick Reaction Force) where you could rest to a degree but were with your section and in a high state of readiness for any (frequent) call out; 8hrs rest including weapon cleaning, admin, personal laundry, bathing and shaving etc. I don't recall sleeping between sheets very often though I did take my boots off a few times. R & R (Rest and Recuperation) consisted of a 4 day mid tour break, with free flights back to your family in the UK. I proposed during mine in December '72 and 3 days later I was back in Armagh for another couple of months. There were no other days off during the tour, just the 4 days. Weekends didn't exist. There was usually a bit of leave once the tour was over. A week or so. I'll never forget those times.
Don't invade a country. That simple!! They left India and I believe I seen in the news some years ago, England apologized to India. Exit Ireland & prepare to be charged with genocide. There are consequences to invading another people's country. I am English if it matters.
The majority of the Northern Irish population want to remain part of the UK, it's a small percentage of people who support the IRA in Northern Ireland. No genocide has occurred in Northern Ireland btw.
@@harryj7341 By brits. It is actually the north of Ireland. Six counties stolen from the Irish and peopled by planters to keep the natives under control. The same method used in all the british colonies. The term you use was coined in 1922 to name a tract of land not given back to Irish people by britain.
The map of Belfast's nationalist/unionist areas at 15:33 has changed beyond all recognition. Area's marked as Loyalist like Dunmurry, Stranmillis, Ballynafeigh, Upper Galwally, Finaghy North are all majority Catholic now. If it kicked off again the soldiers would have a hard time identifying potential enemy due to the increase in nationalist population in the last 40 years.
United Ireland is the best solution,from a pragmatic point of view..I would say that the protestants will agree also..I personally consider then to be Irish
The presence of British troops in Northern Ireland literary saved thousands of lives . Civil order had broken down by August 1969 and a definite mass conflict and slaughter would have resulted had troops not been dispatched. It’s ironic that the Nationalist population would have borne the brink of the ethnic cleansing, and that is the community that cries most about the Army’s excesses . Bloody Sunday and Ballymurphy would have been daily events without the presence of the army . Over the 30 yr period of Operation Banner the British army did an exemplary job in stabilising the situation whilst the Politicians worked out a settlement .
A very well thought out comment instead of an armchair warrior type comment. I just wanted to add, the early years of Op Banner, when the British Army had to change its tactics, adapt the 'Yellow Card' rules, mistakes, deadly mistakes took place. I have no idea why at the time clear investigations never took place regarding Bloody Sunday or Ballymurphy, but I do know from my time in the late 80s and mid 90s, well before you aimed your weapon and pulled the trigger you knew damned well the consequences if you were doing so illegally.
You are an idiot. Basically you said if the Brits hadn't commited the Ballymurphy and Bogside mass murders then loyalists would have, so there is nothing to complain about. Twisted man, twisted.
@@AnonAnonAnon Are you from Ireland? My comment was for P Cooney anyway. If I read anymore about the history of the period in the North of Ireland that people call the "troubles" I doubht I will learn anymore tbh. I am very qualified and old enough to make comment on the facts of life in my own country and the occupation. Thank you very much
@@mattycosta9074 There is no case for British troops in northern Ireland They brought nothing but trouble. They turned local people into killers They were the cause of it . As for bloody Sunday They shoot down people who were doing nothing wrong and they were the law. So please dont defend them . And don't come back telling me what others done wrong there because it will never justified what they done wrong there. Bloody sunday was the water shed moment when northern Ireland people had enough. I was a john hume fan and he stood up to the soldiers and asked them to stop shooting
Just take a look at this documentary/reportage and forget which side of the fence you might favour. If it requires 10,000 (and at times there were almost treble that amount) fully armed and trained combat soldiers to keep a lid on a generations-long civil uprising then that is a failed state. The presence of the soldiers was always a symptom, rather than a cause, of the unsustainable nature of the failed state in the north of Ireland. There was no normality because lack of normality (democracy, equal access to civil rights, housing, employment etc.) was baked into the failed northern state from its inception in 1921.
Rubbish, by the time this was made, late 80's early 90's, civil rights and equality were well on the way to being put in place. Failed state? We are still here 100 years old and still going strong. Power sharing in place, devolution. The only problem is the bitter people who still endure, the haters. The parasite paramilitaries still abusing kids and selling drugs.
@@thepub245 Fair point about the bitter people who cling to hatred etc. But, Neal, here's the rub. You use the pronoun 'we' and you talk on behalf of the 45% (and growing rapidly) of the population of the northern statelet who would, in reality, more likely agree with me that it is a failed state. The 'we' seems to indicate inclusion at first glance, but in reality that 'we' indicates that either you are talking on behalf of only 55% of the population (not very inclusive) or the 'we' means that the other 45% have no valid voice or agency (colonial outdated approach). Of course, I may be totally wrong here Neal, and have misjudged you and you intentions, and have missed your desire to build a new a properly inclusive society. In which case I look forward to having this conversation with you in Irish this time next year.
@@liamevans1630 Knock yourself out with your Irish language Liam. I am not interested in it but if someone wants to speak it or use it, that's their business. I don't agree with it being rammed down peoples throats or tax payers having to pay for it though. Is it not a bit of a useless thing in the 21st century though? English is where its at, just the way the world is. It would be more useful to learn Mandarin Chinese or something. Only saying mate.
Lambs to the slaughter in many ways, they were lied to by their own government, maimed, injury or death unfortunately. PTSD was suffered by everyone, and for truely what.. many would ask today. Everyone knew they didn't want to be there, and they also did too. So sad
Not as bad as the IRA who lied to their own sheep like cult members that it was an honourable thing to starve yourself to death to stir up hate and violence, like the pathetic Bobby Sands.
The freddy Mercury looking soldier had the ira mentality all wrong the fact he knew a volunteers name was just another reason for him to become a huge bullseye
They were lucky they were fighting an army that observed the rule of law. Many others would just have disappeared the known activists, the US armed forces amongst them. Never more than 300 active service PIRA in NI, could have been ended in a weekend in other circumstances.
@@stephenbradshaw6488 That same crap again. Two sides to that story and PIRA using crowds to hide snipers was standard practice. However using Para's for riot control wasn't too bright either. Either way, dwarfed in scale and sheer malevolence by the thousands murdered and mutilated by republican psychopathic criminals. The loyalist thugs were no better. Nothing was achieved, complete waste of time, money and suffering. More could have been done, sooner, through social and political activism. Nobody outside of Ireland CGF whether Ulster stays in the Union or becomes part of China, that will only ever occur by referendum.
I’d like to think that if an Irish army was patrolling the streets of a British town and pulling out arm pit hairs that any able British patriot would do there best to stop them
I'd think you find that they are alot more professional than their British counter parts and have strict rules and regulations on dealing with civils, UK soldiers had the same but the irish follow theirs.
I saw with my own eyes. Things were quite in the 90's brits where still using land rovers with open tops . A women in her sixties climbed up the side of a jeep and started fighting with a soldier. A crowed gathered and said what is wrong? An officer arrived and tried to calm things down and asked what is the problem. She said look at his gloves It said UVF.
What are you talking about ? They may be young lads thrown into a conflict they know nothing about, but at the end of the day that’s not our problem, 14 people in Derry murdered by those animals , they shouldn’t have been there in the first place 🇮🇪 , on a personal level I get on with the English and the British in general but when it comes to the north I don’t
The British soldiers in Ireland is no different to the Russian soldiers in Ukraine. Its ironic now with the British arming Ukraine to the teeth and giving the 'resistance' their unwavering support against the tyrant invaders - yet when the Irish resisted the British called them terrorists. History written by the.....ah you know the rest. Peace.
So why are Republican terrorists giving support to Putin? Why do they agree with his land grab? The United Kingdom is England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
@BossmanFromEnds shouldn’t have been there in the first place, if catholics weren’t being treated so badly by the unionist that also shouldn’t have been there, the troubles wouldn’t have started
@BossmanFromEnds Ah yes,every catholic was an IRA volunteer or an IRA supporter and therefore every catholic civilian killed by the British Army was guilty as charged. Very clever
Interesting to see the regimental badge of the UDR on the beret at 15-40. Under the crown is a harp, which I thought was a symbol more related to Ireland as a whole, particularly Catholic Ireland, or as things stood then and now, the Republic. It's not something that I would expect the predominantly Protestant soldiers of the UDR, to proudly wear or even relate to.
The harp has been used on Irish regimental insignia as part of the armed forces of the UK for centuries. Religion was never part of it either- over a third of Nelson’s Navy was composed of Irish Catholics. Very often attracted by a steady wage rather than any particular devotion to mainland Britain. The Irish-Catholic contribution to the armed expansion of the Empire was absolute gigantic, often providing some of the best officers the Army and Navy has ever seen. Too many to even begin to list. The UDR is obviously a historical oddity regarding religion, but the harp was never seen as solely representing Catholic identity.
@@TodayFreedom Yea. I know a bit about the Irish contribution to Britain's military success over the years, and the use of the harp in insignia. I read somewhere that the Duke of Wellington, himself Anglo-Irish, had many Irish troops in his armies, especially in the Peninsular campaign. However, the UDR was formed in 1970, just after the troubles started. It never had many Catholics in it, and through most of the troubles, was over 95% Protestant. With their sheer hatred of all things they saw as Irish, like Catholicism, or seeing the Irish tri-colour being displayed in those days, and obviously fighting Irish republicans, as well as seeing themselves as British. I found it surprising that such an insignia was chosen, instead of some type of symbol, that was seen as being neutral.
@@TodayFreedom The harp has been a symbol of Ireland for a thousand years. Long before the Normans or the plantations. British regiments or the RUC using the harp is called cultural theft.
My grandfather and one of his brothers served in the Royal Irish Regiment 1685 - 1922. It has a harp and crown but no maid of erin on it. Northern regiments in WW1 for instance had the maid of erin on their cap badges and reigments and regiments from the south did not. These days the new Royal Irish regiment try to claim a relationship with the old Royal Irish who were also known as the 18th Regiment of Foot. The new Royal Irish Regiment are basically the UDR.
I’m a yank/plastic paddy, I wrote my dissertation on the Troubles and this comment deserves more likes. Fact of the matter is that I wouldn’t exist without partition or the famine. So it annoys me when they deny or downplay their atrocities in Ireland.
@@MCKevin289 Ireland went through many famines, nothing to do with the British. End of the day most of the public wanted to stay in the Uk but rebals along with americans politicians funded the rebals and later ira. Ireland was a full meber of the Uk and ran the British empire.
@@markymark7803 I’m well aware, my focus in undergrad was in Irish history lol. A lot of policies and military tactics used for the conquest of the Native Americans were born in Ireland.
When was this Island ever a peace? If you read the history you will find the very early days of documented history where the tribes fought themselves for land cattle and to enslave their enemy. I worked in hospitals most of my life and I have seen so horrific carnage of innocent people. The images I have seen will live with me until I die. At present, I dislike every politician we have and if I were younger I would out of this beautiful island of ours because of the hatred that has been here for thousands of years.
Well James you make a valid point. It certainly was not at peace after the Welsh Normans came to Ireland. Then the Tudors. After that Oliver Cromwell and his version of ISIS came. After that there was yet another English civil war fought on Irish soil. After that you have a crop failure and then famine. Though a famine is essentially when there is no food. In this case it was food being exported at gunpoint which was a huge issue and hey well you cant fish as that was illegal also. I see this part of Irish history as a genocide. Not a racial one but a genocide against the poorest of the poor. Britain is reaping what it sowed and will do so throughout the world for years to come.
@@anthonycosgrave8539 Ireland was fighting long before the British ever arrived, or even existed, like all places. Does not matter how much you seeth and cry.
@@retardcapital2976 Ah denial is a wonderful thing for the brain dead. Lets count genocides. Or maybe the first to set up concentration camps. Oh wait Britain wins again. Thats 2 in Ireland and one in India. And of course South Africa was the first concentration camp set up by the Brits. Oh wow what an example. Anyhoo the BBC says that there is a shortage of Clowns in NI. So why not apply you meet all the requirements.
When we were out on the ground at 4AM 5AM about to return to base white rocks or macrory we would see a milk float or a milk delivery van 1 guy would stop it and talk to the driver, and 3 would rob bacon eggs milk bread ,We knew there would be nothing in the cookhouse untill 6 30 AM and we were hungry . Then the CO said stop robbing food off Milkmen and made the cookhouse 24 hours .Kerching .
I expect they have a greater comprehension today of their actions and why they were disliked so much, even hated. No wonder they suffer from PTSD and huge guilt to this day
Most if not all the soldiers were unemployable in the real world, the army was their only option as a result, scary to think the authorities let these individuals run around with fire arms.
@@paulbentley1705 They were illiterate adults, social outcasts, the army being their only option in life which speaks volumes. Even today similar adults join up for the same reasons…………..unemployable.
I feel sorry for all the British soldiers who served in Northern Ireland (apart from a small minority). They were ill used in support of a wrong. Best wishes to them.
@@invisibleman4827 Initially they acted as protectors of the Catholic minority and were welcomed as such. However thereafter, in reacting to the civil unrest and being in unfamiliar territory as they were, they were primarily under the guidance the Unionist RUC and NI government. This meant employing troops against Catholics in rounding up internees and trashing houses looking for arms. On an individual level the British soldiers were undoubtedly mainly ordinary decent men but they ended up taking a side in the conflict
@winterishere9828 They were misdirected at a level, which was unhelpful. Ultimately, the IRA was an extremist group as much as their UVF counterparts, and both were lying about "protecting" their own communities.
A powerful documentary. I had a father in the RUC and an uncle in the UDR and people need to see the constant stress and anxiety faced by not just those who served in operation banner. And the legacy of mental health issues . Myself have been battling PTSD and depression since i was a child due to what i seen and went through. God bless all who served in operation banner
@@gjm5890 what i have to be feel guilty about. You try living with PTSD and trauma and manic depression for over nearly 40 years. Hurt and evil was done on both sides. I would rather see money being put into helping ALL who suffered get help with their mental health and start living their lives instead of existing.
even the sickest serial killer can have a sympathetic story. doesnt mean that they are worth wasting empathy on. You signed up and spent the wages. Ignorance is no excuse. In fact its the perfect demonstration of a superiority complex; like you're literally going to take up arms, go to a land far from home and not do some cursory research beforehand? you may be changed men today, we can all strive for redemption, but those lads back then who put on the uniform deserved everything they got and maybe worse. And i say that not just as someone whose family existed at the pointy end of that spear, but for all the people over the world the british military brutalised through the *centuries*. countless generations of young lads seeking adventure and glory in the viscera of defenceless people.
I went into the Military young, brainwashed and willing. I was posted to Northern Ireland on both short and long Tours and returned older, wiser and saddened at the things that man can do to his fellow man. I met good and bad people from both sides and often had a creeping feeling that some of the things we did there were sometimes not right. The memories sometimes still steal my sleep - even some 40 years on!
A line from one of my Songs: (writing them is one of my coping mechnisms)
"and we think we fight for what is right
It depends who`s side you`re on
But who will dry your children`s tears
When their Daddy`s dead and gone.
I wish peace and prosperity to Ireland and all her people.
Would you do it again?
To an extent. Had I knew then what I know now I would have left after 3 or 4 years and invested my time and effort into something else. Having said that the army forms you and equips you with a certain mindset that civilians seldom have...and the Cameraderie is second to none. :-)@@jackietreehorn5561
Yet here you are peddling the fallacy of British neutrality, this mantle of benign adjudicator , to which you apparently lay claim is at the heart of the issue.
Next you will repeat the lie that the British army went to aid the nationalist population, when the truth was that you went to shore up the failed sectarian statelet which Britain had spawned.
You were anything but the , unfortunate, pig in the middle.
Nevertheless good luck with your songwriting.
That was beautiful. Thank you for your words
A soldier has a duty to refuse an order which he understands to be unlawful or which goes against God's law , as such you are obligated to disclose , where it is safe to do so, that which you know.
Having lived through the troubles as a child, teenager and young man watching this now i notice that the soldiers or Brits as we called them were just young lads themselves thrown in at the deep end of a centuries old political problem they knew nothing about. God bless all that lost their lives whether they be from a Nationalist/Unionist or young soldier from the British mainland, at the end of the day they were all someone's son or daughter, brother or sister, such a waste.
We need more people like you in today's world.
Good words Sean. Slainte Mhath
Amen Brother - similar to middle east
in that perspective
No excuse.
If the british just stayed at home.Lots of british young men died for their glorious empire. What are they doing in Ireland only trying to maintain a hold on a foreign land.
The soldier talking coming up to the 9 minute mark basically sums up one of the many reasons their presence was totally resented there, talking about 'winding 'em up, pulling their armpit hairs, making them wait around, miss buses etc......a bullied people always have a breaking point
@@RCWB74 sounds like the soldiers were the terrorists
@@RCWB74 You believe that? We certainly fucked around with the civies. But nothing like what the RUC used to do
@Dan H yeah yous won, well done
Nastiness.
@Dan H wrong. Everything has changed.
A load of posh lads commanding poor lads from England in Northern Ireland calling people fighting against them terrorists.
Lucky me 58 squadron RAF Regiment 1982, 83,84 all four months at RAF Aldergrove, no problems but then we were Air Force. Greetings from Australia
Hope you got the chance to get over to Ram's island on your short visits. Still has carvings from the yanks who stayed at Langford lodge around the 2nd world war. It has its own round tower monument too. But hey you probably didn't get much on R and R in Ireland.
Now do a video on their victims families..
and what about those "feathered and tarred" or knee capped ? They are the real victims
Or maybe a video on the victims of the families of Birmingham pub bombings
Britain's shameful history......
@@TommyBahama84 100%! Anyone who purposely harms anyone else is scum. The IRA had no business bombing innocent people. They're fight was with the terrorists in their country. I'm sure the poor people in that pub that night didn't even know what their troops were doing in Ireland 😢
@@JohnoO_O_ Tarred and feathered for good reason. How are they victims?
Being from the south and having relatives which we would often visit in derry my lasting memory as a small child was continually having rifles pointed at me by british soldiers. Inches away through car windows at checkpoints
Probably an oldish vid...anyway I've watched vids from all sides,and all have a sad story to tell..it's got to the point,where I can't even watch them anymore..but anyway,we hope for better times,and I think it's over,hopefully
@@jangowan5742 we all do jan. The anti Irish/ catholic bigotry needs to addressed both in the north of ireland and west of Scotland. The UK is the only western government who not only turns a blind eye but actively funds these forms of discrimination through the orange order and 12th of July 'celebrations'. The pandering to blind hatred has to stop.
I remember going down south on holiday as a kid and having my das car torn apart and left in pieces at the side of the road by the British army . Have a nice trip folks... Terrible times!
@@bpd1111 Well said !
@@bpd1111 Yeah it is disgusting that this video sympathising with a known terrorist , should still be on here. The media may try brainwash people. But the only terrorist in this was the British army. Nothing more than a bunch of unintelligent war hungry scum in uniform. Just look at their football fans. Wrap them up in an army uniform, rather than an England Jersey and that is what we had in beautiful Ireland.
Many many years ago, went to Ireland when the troubles were on.
A British soldier heard my accent (Australian) and said "you don't belong here Laddie." I replied with "well, from I've been told, your lot are as welcome as herpes at a swingers party." The lads (my cousins...) danmed near fell over laughing. The British bloke had a chuckle also.
cool story br0, needs more ninjas.
@@jimmyspiteria9371 their Nangas were imposter ✌️🥇
Ningars
Ers? 😅
I was in Belfast City Center when a soldier stepped out from a doorway, I wasn't used to soldiers in full battle dress coming out of the shadows and I hadn't seen him. so I jumped a little. He asked me where I was from and I told him that I was a Yank. "Watch yourself around here. This isn't the States you can't do just anything you want to do.".
Yeah Robbie H that's a really interesting story 🤔👍 go read some more books
Must watch. We all have a responsibility to get on with each other. It's pretty random who gets picked to pay the price when we don't.
I lost a leg and it hurts . I am sorry to see the poor Welsh soldier who lost both his legs.
No one wins . Only the politician.
@@ProfileP246 indeed, those paddies delusion. Act of terrorism in their eyes is freeing their country? Calling us murderers for destroying hostile terrorist threats? Its like watching a deluded barking dog try and tell us why it isn't bad. Rule britannia 🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧
@Brad pitt Killing and maiming was 80% republican, Prod's were no better, but cause and effect. PIRA terrorized their own communities and murdered many of their own as well as thousands of innocents. Terrorists and criminals who achieved nothing at all.
@@ProfileP246 you create evil. Wonder what would happen if Irish soldiers start laying down the law on the streets of London And I'm totally against any war or violence
@Muhammad What are you talking about, it's Britain, the majority of the ulster population want to remain so until this day. Are you suggesting that any nation should surrender to terrorism? Even amongst the catholic population the IRA were a tiny minority, never more than 300 active service terrorists at any one time and they terrorised the catholic communities they operated within.
@@seamusgallagher9872 +1 a referendum or stop talking shit. It's Britain until the majority of the population say otherwise.
When I was a child, 9 or 10, we had a wee hut set up in Belfast. As it was an area the squaddies could maybe feel a bit more easy in they could relax and were decent as to a pack of wee scallywags. They were giants in our eyes. Looking back I realize they were young men earning a living and not get killed. Still giants. by the railroad crossing near the twinkle Brummy lads. Respect.
Served in NI in the 90s. The bigotry and hatred still turns my stomach to think of it. (ie. from the RUC I was on patrol with)
Horrible crowd that RUC was. I mostly hold them responsible for the whole thing kicking off.
I’m just glad the war is over. Thank God!
“Yeah what a waste and mess.”
It won't be until britian completely leaves Ireland and it's britians fault, all of it.
@@murphy9924 I can’t help but love the fact that the loyalists are now “northern” Ireland’s greatest security threat. Have fun with the beast of your own creation.
@@murphy9924 Britain aren’t In Ireland. Northern Ireland have chose to stay in the UK
@@finmckim8961 then they are traitors to Ireland.
Would love a follow up nowadays of same brits to ask what they really think now..
Absolutely. My thoughts too.
I served. But there were so many Irish who I am honoured to have met
@Mark o'Neill..they would still be as bitter and in denial,and would say they were "patriotic"lol....I just don't understand why the u.n wasn't sent in?..would have been a better alternative
@@jangowan5742 always thought that meself
There all hiding in Australia.
My mate was sent there. He was little more than a kid fighting for the British army. They got him to raid houses in the middle of the night and drag innocent men from their beds. He still hasn’t gotten over the trauma he caused, and his own trauma. Poor bloke.
He now can’t stand all this flag waving nationalism.
Politicians who would soil themselves if they had to do the same type of work they were sending these kids out to do.....they’re the ones who deserved the hatred. Soldiers joined up sometimes because there was no work in their own home towns and needed a wage. I feel terrible that some soldiers really were kids when they were sent over the water while the politicians sat in their offices eating biscuits and drinking tea with no thought for the poor souls on both sides of the conflict. I went to school with a guy who joined the army as a bagpiper, we live in the Scottish highlands, and he ended up leaving the army when he was told his unit was going to be heading over the water. He just couldn’t handle the thought of it and I don’t blame him.
@@Highland_Moo I applied to join RAF in 87, I was asked "Well son, you are from an Irish background how do you feel about going to Ireland? You realise you could be asked to pick up a rifle and back up an army patrol", Me : "No I won't be doing that" ROFL..........Bless.............
That's the truth!
@@f.dmcintyre4666 ..a friend of mine from s.ireland joined the paras at Aldershot,but during bayonet training,the bags of sand were referred to as "paddies,lol
Poor lad hope he's alright
I can remember patrolling Divis Flats in 79, terrible place.
Being threw the troubles of northern Ireland thank you for your service 😢
got a lot better when you left though
Tough one. The English young lads have been actively and aggressively recruited by the British Government - most of them are poorly educated and had little or no options for employment - it was the only option for them, they didn't know what was really in store for them when they landed in Belfast. Now on to the trickier part .. they shouldn't have been there in the first place and only served to prolong the violence that ultimately came to England itself. I don't blame these lads, I 100% blame the British Government of the time - for not giving these lads more options for their life which ultimately scarred them. No one wins in war. No one.
@Dibley8899 the trick is to catch it early and pay off all the people causing trouble. They left it too late and it created a vacuum. Bit like what's happening in Gaza Israel. Here's my tuppence worth living in Both countries England and Ireland and understanding and liking both nations... Sometimes governments want war. Sometimes governments like to prolong war for as long as it suits them.
@Dibley8899The hate needs to go.
a friend of mine served in the army in the 70's 80's he was station in northern ireland in 79 i think he was there twice .. he was using the SLR rifles then ...
My first time as a sprog 2Lt Royal Marine was late 1979. Thought I knew what cold and wet weather until sitting in an OP.
@@Lord_Ronin_The_Compassionate thought we knew how to get some sleep until we knew what noise pollution was
I was a crew member on a ship in 1968/9, On the ship a lad from Northern Ireland and a engine room rating from the south... they disliked each other, for what I couldn't understand...sometime later I realised why..They were okay with the rest of the crew, but between them a divide that could never be reconciled...
Been there.
Was there an Aidan Gavigan on that ship ?
As a person from the Caribbean this hatred also baffle me, as people from both sides of the peace line eagerly accepted me.
@@jackietreehorn5561 Ireland had their plantations, don't pretend they were on the same catagory as african slaves.catagory
The guy on 47.34 minutes has real humanity, do they learn about there’re history in Ireland 🇮🇪 in English schools?? I can tell you first hand that they don’t, I’m Irish and proud to be but in the mide 80,s I lived and worked in London and any of the English lad’s I worked with had absolutely no problem with me Being Irish. I worked with a lovely fella from Sheffield and he actually taught that the whole of Ireland was a war zone with British soldiers patrolling the streets of Dublin and bombs going off everywhere, I had to explain to him what was really happening, quite obvious he had no education about brithish imperialism. I was shocked that someone from England hadn’t a clue about what was really happening in Northern Ireland, I’m pretty sure the British soldiers who served in the north hadn’t a clue about why this war was happening
Did you tell him about the fact that the IRA was a violent extremist group just like the UVF too, or did you do the whole MOPE syndrome disneyfication of IRA violence and paint them in a rosy light, and pass off their victims as deserving of their fate as "casualties of war" like shinnerbots regularly do?
The loyalist paramilitaries were a extension of the British army... private assassins to deny
Even the British public treat N.I. as a foreign place..which it is
I'm Irish and I feel sorry for these kids sent over from the UK not knowing what there fighting for..
Don't feel sorry it was for the Queen
Many lads were from Liverpool with Irish immigrant families...
@Yourda 473i What?
@@goth_dude6874 Which planet do you currently revolve around? I never went to Northern Ireland for the Queen!
I'm from County Louth. I served a total of three years on Op Banner. I knew why I was in Northern Ireland along with the countless other soldiers. You also forgot or don't know that thousands of soldiers serving in the Province were local lads and lasses, some from both sides of the divide. I was there to support the RUC to defeat terrorism from both sides, Republican and Loyalists. Witnessing the aftermath of a Republican bombing in which a young lady was looking down at the bloody stump that was her foot you then realise that both sides targeted innocents from the same side. Thugs, cowards and murderers.
I was a Paratrooper who served in Northern Ireland - Belfast - on the Peace line. In Boundary Street to be exact (off Falls Road). Catholic community - they were simply normal people who wanted protection from the Protestant vigilanties. They were grateful for our stay in what was one of the Bin disposable units for that area. Of course they left at our request (Bin Refuse Reposal Unit) and we set up a base - installed showers etc. The locals around Boundary street I have to say (All Catholics) were really nice to us soldiers. Cups of tea etc. We even had our own bar for off duty personnel which a lot of Catholic girls would frequent - we had a disco and lassies from as far as the Balymurphy housing estate would venture - They were the great times - I will always treasure them. Then it stopped as the PIRA started killing - end of disco. No more Rosaline from Ballymurphy. Your looking at 1970.
The reason was the Falls curfew army murdered William Burns Zbigniew Uglik a journalist also my dads friends dad Patrick Elliman they drove a Saracen over Charles O'Neill injured 60 civilians destroyed my families house and hundreds of others that is what ended the honeymoon and PIRA started to attack the army
Peace to you. From a former American Marine with 'Ireland Forever' on one arm and a Fighting Irishman on the other.
The children of both sides deserve better.
Yeah great story but the fact is you had NO business being in Ireland. Every single death by both is a direct result from the British (you) occupying Ireland.
People in nationalist ghettos didn't wake up one day and decide to shoot at soldiers.....they wanted to hit back and the forces that degraded their community and smothered their right to be Irish
Then your Paras started shooting innocent people in Ballymurphy, even a priest giving the last rites to a mortally wounded man. Then on to Derry.
There were and still are casualties on EVERY side, we are all people. NI veteran Co Tyrone 1984-5.
I was in Clogher for 4 months in 89, strange little place.
We should of done that tour..and at the last moment, after learning the area, we were moved to Middle Town/Keady, then Cookstown. That was a screwed up time. I had one of yours on my team in the LAS and he described a hit that would of been us. Sorry for your loss
Did 2 tours, 1984, for 6 months, 1986 another 6 months. Royal Corps of Transport 84 in Belfast, then 86, might be 87 with the Kings Regiment. I just was so sad that this conflict ever started, but it did, and I WAS not impressed of all its principals. As we all know, humans can be fine also humans are the most evil things on this planet came to mind.
All water under the bridge now with me
Both sides felt it dearly, right or wrong doesn’t matter because violence is not the correct path no matter what. I feel bad for both the British and the Irish. As a die hard catholic and also and ex soldier I feel as though the goals of the south could have been achieved peacefully over time. I just feel terrible for all of the families that have lost someone.
Lest we forget for both sides of the fence
Violence is sometimes the only way you can persuade someone. Just saying doesent matter if its right or wrong it will always be a thing and it sometimes more often then not works.
Lest we forget who invaded who. Very arrogant of you to compare the opressor and the opressed.
The goals of the invading british were not achieved peacefully but you expect everyone else not resort to violence. What we had was taken by force and only right that it be taken back by force. Do you think if we said to the british "Go home please as we want our land back" they would have gone and brought their planters with them?
We British ARE the Irish, that's what it is to be a Unionist
@@MrLorenzovanmatterho Unionists are not Irish. When Ireland is united there will be no place for them other than britain or the sea.
As a Welshman, I have big respect to the British soldiers, and the innocent Irish civilians that where killed. I only hope for peace 🇬🇧🇮🇪
A Welshman subservient to your English masters. Pathetic
Respect for everyone no?
A Welsh sheep 🐑
One of those things I always fond confusing is that soldiers in Guerilla armies seem to accept the fact that death or injury is an outcome of joining an army and British soldiers seem stunned when it happens them.
Wonder do they think it's just a natives shoot with no return fire or something?
Padraig, have you ever noticed that every single soldier, without exception, either from the British or American army that is shot or killed was a hero while every single IRA volunteer was a terrorist and a coward? Never once did the IRA manage to get one single lackey.What are the odds?
The IRA weren't "natives", they were an extremist faction who were no better than ISIS or Slobadan Milosevic.
@@MrMollypocketsUS and other countries independences are celebrated, while the Irish are suppressed
@@invisibleman4827Isis couldn't be negotiated with
@@jackietreehorn5561 No, and the 'Ra' were the same until the writing was on the wall
This is one of the best documentaries I've seen on how The Troubles took its toll on our soldiers.
I was in the Andrew and served in the South Atlantic in 82 and i found it ultimately terrifying. The difference was i knew who my enemy was and we knew when we were going to be attacked (although knowing you were minutes away from a bomb or that an exocet was on its way isn't conducive to much laughter)
Like the young private said, for me it was nothing to do with "Queen and Country ", it was a job and more for them than me, a dangerous one but probably a just one.
My absolute respect for everyone involved in this magnificent piece of journalism.
Put yourself in the other shoes... doubt that you would think the same thing as us... just saying
6:41 Didn't realise Freddie Mercury had a Tour in Northern Ireland
I heard it was the bomb
I thought same thing 😂😂
Haha thats Freddie alright
Obviously this is a one sided view of a situation given by soldiers who weren't born in that land and probably don't have any historical or political context of the conflict. They only know what they're told . They can't say any different.
A mate of mine told me a story once when they used to go out on patrol, this bloke had trained his dog to attack anyone wearing combats and they would all laugh, this day they brought along a war dog and when their dog was released the war dog was released, it was a predictable outcome but I felt sorry for the dog because it was only doing what it had been trained to do.
What breed? War dog another name for a cane corso
@@jackietreehorn5561 German Shepard.
@@formhubfar after WW2 German Shepherd breed was renamed Alsatian because of the anti German sentiment at the time.... remember reading that and thought was an interesting fact
@@formhubfarthey used springer and Labrador sniffer dogs FFS ,they didn't use alsatians , they used lead and rubber bullets against stone throwers or crowd control ( kids tossing stones at them ) so he's telling you porkies mate .
@@TheNinyo77 Springer spaniel war dogs?.., kool story bro.
What was the point of patrolling South Armagh? It seemed they were not so much patrolling as sneaking around trying to avoid getting spotted themselves.
would you have preferred All-Out War instead?
@Ichnid Mcgonagle All Out War is how the Nazis or Soviets would have approached this conflict. The Brits seem to have used NI as a training ground for dealing with urban riots on the Mainland.
@Ichnid Mcgonagle but surely if Hitler had invaded Ireland, he would have came in with tanks and heavy artillery? His aims were power and conquest, very different from the British Army trying to 'keep the peace' which was a disaster of a different type, in all fairness, of course. To be fair, Stalin never seemed to have any interest in taking over mainland Europe, including the UK and Ireland..... I am looking at the wider picture here, far beyond an internal conflict like Ireland. Incidentally, Germany bombed both the North and South of Ireland . With aeroplanes, no less, far more destructive in a short space of time , than even the worst of British oppression. The Third Reich only lasted for 12 years, but look at the devastation created in so short a time. The death toll of 1939-45 [a mere six years] far eclipses even the worst atrocities of hundreds of years of the Irish conflict. WW2 could have spread to Ireland---and in fact, it did. I am sure you are very passionate and knowledgeable about Irish History but the conflict is sadly just one of many others in human History , and History shows us even worse situations than Ireland have came along, in relatively recent History.
@Ichnid Mcgonagle I meant that since the most recent Troubles, from 1969 onwards, the Brits were trying to 'keep the peace' in comparison to the Soviets or Nazis, who would have waged All-Out War. For example, the Sovs or Nazis would have used machine-guns on rioters, extreme, All-Out War methods more on par with WW2 .The Brits were 'keeping the peace' [yes, a farce, I know, I personally though the whole approach was a disaster ] compared to resorting to Heavy Artillery [although Churchill once threatened Michael Collins with 'aeriel bombardment'.
@Ichnid Mcgonagle that guy is chatting pure waffle comparing a world war to a civil war decades after it ended and then decides to compare Stalin and hitler to it all 🤣
My auntie from England thought the UN should've kept the peace in northern ireland. Because the British soldiers doing it made it look like the british were policing the original problem.
Its part of the United Kingdom, why does the useless United Nations need to get involved?,??🙄
@@gooner72 Because the British Govt was part of the problem.
@@gooner72 pretty useless, I know. But I already said the reason.
@@gooner72 It's a divided society, don't pretend you don't know that. The British Army needed to be neutral when deployed in 1969. They failed abysmally.
If the UN got involved, I guarantee that after one firefight with the IRA, they would probably hide in their base for safety
In these 48 minutes and 24 seconds do they touch on the incident with The Miami Show Band or am I wasting my time?
It must be difficult for people after a war to live with blindness and loss of limbs etc.. I'm happy those savage bitter days are over.
Poorly educated guys told they as the invaders are the good guys and the local volunteers resisting are the bad guys ..... Britains policies towards Ireland have been and remain an utter disgrace
And what does that make the IRA volunteers? Not exactly brain surgeons were they? Just gullible young men bred into a circle of hate. Lads did not join the British army to do tours of NI. It was just a chore and each had to take their turn. They had better things to be doing.
@@Kaiserbill99 if u had of lived in nationalist areas you would understand why they where volunteers. Britans dirty war in Ireland has came to light in the last number of years. By fact not by fiction oul hann 🇮🇪
@@paulhughes4081 The only reason the army were there in the first place was to keep the peace between the two sides of the divide. The army policed Northern Ireland. And this is where the nationalist community come unstuck with their logic. Were the IRA at war or terrorist operatives? It seems to depend on circumstances. Soldiers caught in a bombing were victims of war but IRA operatives killed in Gibraltar were "murdered". If it was war then the army were entitled to go in with a big stick and intern suspected members and their families.
It is just as well for the IRA that the UK government treated the IRA as terrorists subject to the law and not as a legitimate army; otherwise it would have been the shortest war in history. British democracy and rule of law rather ironically gave the IRA the oxygen to breathe. I doubt a Saddam or Putin would have hesitated to snuff out the IRA in quick time.
@@Kaiserbill99 pretty legitimate army for the 18 on the Warrenpoint road
@@paulhughes4081 No-one doubted the IRA's ability to kill but that does not make them an army. They were shunned by the very country they purported to represent. I have no doubt army intelligence was good enough to be able to identify most operatives and their associates. Because Britain treated the IRA as criminals subject to the rule of law then burden of proof was required to convict. In times of war the same principles do not apply. The Troubles would not have lasted in different circumstances.
The Provos were clearly terrorists however. As much about organised crime as political agenda. They chose violence when political recourse was still available to them. Republicans retained the right to political assembly and political representation but chose violence.
Peace is fragile but holding.... the hate is still there....
@@jendrizzyy Where are you from Jen if you don't mind me asking...
Loses both legs and a kidney yet still manages to call it an “accident”. That’s s special sort of guy, hope you’re still going Richard, and your children are grown and making you proud.
TBH, throughout my time 1978-2008 Royal Marine Commando I count myself fortunate to have completed my time with just internal bling that couldn’t be removed, but causes issues at airports, but whether it’s Northern Ireland, Iraq, Kuwait, Afghanistan and everywhere else I didn’t appreciate just what it had done psychologically.
Cheerfulness in Adversity is the RM motto. But it all takes its toll especially when any of my men were injured/killed and then there’s a letter to write. Strange as it might seem it wasn’t until being diagnosed with terminal cancer that the severity of my PTSD became known. After a long period out cold with anaesthesia apparently I attacked the medical staff, not my best moment, but they understood and forgave me. I’ll always be grateful for never having remarried or had kids as the anger just became worse the longer I stayed, but the longer I remained the better I was at hiding it.
Was it all worth it?
Seeing Divi’s flats again was weird, last time I went to Belfast (post service) there was only Divis tower left, my buddy got injured in a bomb blast in Divi’s flats, a volunteer on detachment from the royal artillery was killed and 2 innocent local kids, I was lying in a bunk, reading Shibumi in north Howard street mill when the bomb went off.
Hope one day they can all live in peace
Was a tough time for everyone involved.
"Pull armpit hair that gets them going"
Sly little grin on him
That lad certainly was a cheeky chappie, but you do need a few of those to keep you going I feel. Right when it really hits the fan, and you feel all hope is lost, will be precisely when they start tugging on armpit hairs without a care in the world.
back in my time in ireland as a cook i saw a guy return to base having been stabbed in the leg by a girl of about 10 or 12 i watched a group of lads go out in a landrover , non returned, the landrover was little more than twisted metal, i saw a guy return , having shot two gun men , as he sat giving his statement he began banging his head on the table , hed been told the one chap was the father of 4 and he was the kids only parent , the wife was killed some years earlier in a blast. .
Was brutal. No winners all round
You should have stayed at home then
@@batcollins3714 Northern Ireland is the UK, so he was home.
@bat... last time I checked I was home. Jog on you geographically ignorant person
@@ROALD. No one in my platoon considered it home. or any of the soldiers on the vid. They all talk about going home. NI is not Britain.The sooner they all fuck off the better.
Loved the dog having a Kip during the briefing,
These working class lads were also victims of the British state.
Pretty sure the IRA were working *against* the "British state", not *for* it - at least until now.
Ireland must be the only country in the western world that’s still occupied by a foreign power, I wonder if these soldiers ever wondered why or for what reason they were in Ireland especially since the vast majority of Irish people thoroughly resented their presence there . Imagine if Irish troops occupied Yorkshire and stopped people going about their business every day sometimes 7 or 8 times per day and then at night they’d break down your door and wreck your house saying they were looking for arms. If it took thousands of armed troops to maintain the British presence in Ireland then that should have been a major hint they were in a country where they weren’t welcome , the English people come to Ireland on holidays and they’re always welcome as long as they respect our country and the people but never as occupiers.
@@MichaelZZRrider yes
Not exactly, America was hijacked by a certain 3% population of people a century ago.
If you define an "occupation" as a democratically elected government voting in multiple referendums to stay with a nation, along with the long term option to leave if the majority wants, combined with some of the lowest levels of racial and religious discrimination in the world (post troubles), then sure I guess
@@ravenmusic6392 Ireland, as one country, voted overwhelmingly for Independence in 1918. As a result, the British created a new ‘country’ designed to ensure those in the North east who were against Independence were a majority in the newly invented statelet.
How would feel if Post Brexit, David Cameron ignored the result and partitioned England along Leave and Remain lines, with a little remain State Called Southern England staying in the EU against the wishes of the overall majority of the country?
I suspect you would feel aggrieved at the mutilation and division of your country.
@@zoso7889 Would be hypocritial for ireland to have independence and then not allow other areas within it to also have independence.
didn't know Freddie mercury was in the army
Apparently he was thrown out for doing the fandango.
he was in the queens regiment.
I used to be pro IRA then i found out my great grandfater died serving in the Boar war with the Enniskillen Fusillers it brought home to me the wrongness of war RIP all those kiilled in Ireland who ever they are
Another war where the Brits committing war crimes against innocent civilians, its in their blood.
To the lady who begged for her weans god love you and thank god you survived. ❤
Even here in West Germany, the IRA planted bombs. I remember one at the Joint Headquarters in Mönchengladbach. I was there often to visit a friend on his shift at the fire department. The firemen, except for the top floor, were German.
My Girlfriends father still sleeps with his shoes on sometimes. All I need to know. I watch these to get a better understanding.
Sleeping with my shoes on - yes, that takes me back.
@@willfoster2635 Currently with the man himself. He has a room upstairs deticated to the troubles. Currently making a Puma Airfix haha
700 went back to England in pine suits,,very sad
Shouldn't of been in NI
Maybe they have forgotten about shooting innocent, unarmed civilians.
thats no different to bombing & maiming innocent civilians
@@johnboothr1 don't invade and occupy others and they won't need to fight back its literally that simple!
@@joemoody7440 almost as simple as you by the sounds of it. you should have been left to rot in civil war with an attitude like that
@@johnboothr1 🤣🤣🤣 how can't you mindless morons understand the cause of the conflict? There is no IRA if there is no occupation and oppression but tell yourself all the lies you want to justify this unjustifiable conflict
@@johnboothr1 how is it so hard for you people to realise when you invade and occupy you will be met with resistance?? Its very basic
gaa players were regularly stopped at road checkpoints and the soldiers deliberately threw their gear and hurleys away from the vehicle deliberately
Don’t forget them using our pitches as helicopter pads
20.19 He said it's good fun? I'm absolutely appalled. And the trigger happy one after him.
Make sure to tell the other side of the story, the part where the men in this video put innocent civilians in coffins.
Can't imagine why they might be hostile.. Hundreds of years of Occupation & Humiliation. Leave...
Watching this you can see that the people sent to stop terrorism, were in fact terrorising people themselves.
And that goes Back hundreds of years. The Irish were never the enemy, they were the victim who reacted.
@@coadyryan6519 smoking that taig pack rn ripbozo
The less valiant ones who are guilty of murder were unavailable for comment.
@@MichaelZZRrider No proof there.
"We invaded their land. But we expected them to be nice."
I worked with some colonels many decades later from the troubles. I always just wanted to ask him. What was it worth to shit in another mans field?
Tiocfaidh ár lá ☘️
Sounds like a bunch of cowards to me. You get called mean names so that gives you the right to put a man in the hospital?
17:35 Amazingly strong woman. Some great people in this doc!
The fact that some young English lad could stick on a uniform and terrorise our people makes me sick to my stomach
A great many of the soldiers deployed to Northern Ireland were Scotsmen.
That Welsh Fella has the heart of a Dragon, I'm glad it's all almost over.
The Eye on the boyo in the thumbnail 😂😂🇮🇪🇮🇪🇮🇪🇮🇪
One shot paddy. Brilliant 🇮🇪🇮🇪🇮🇪
Questions:
1. How long was the tour of duty in NI for British soldiers?
2. Did the soldiers get combat pay or any other additional hazard pay? Top choice of next assignment?
3. Did soldiers volunteer for duty in NI or was it just the luck of the draw. British soldiers had duty stations in Germany - no doubt a much better assignment than NI.
4. How much time off/leave did soldiers receive?
FWIW: If I'm a British soldier from say Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham or even London the last thing I would ever want to do is join the British Army and get posted to Northern Ireland. See the world!
1. Unaccompanied 4 months - e.g west Belfast or south Armagh. Accompanied 2 years. In my experience the 4 months was easier than the 2 years - trying to live a “ normal life” when the threat is constant is straining.
2. Not at all.
3. You go where you are sent, infantry battalions get rostered . You could volunteer for jobs in Ulster, for example, your battalion is part of a division, if an ulster based battalion was under manpower strength, then they’d request additional manpower. Also, specialist units took volunteers
4. 4 month tours, normally 3 days of R and R. In theory on two year tours “ normal” holiday but that never transpires. I did a variety of jobs in Ulster between 1985 through to 1989. Between 1987-89 the violence escalated in the extreme ( ballyk, loughgall, Corporal killings, Gibraltar Op Flavius, Milltown Cemetery, etc etc) and our 659 troops were pushed to the max. On this tour I got 19 days off shore in two years. In retrospect it was quite straining on the nerves, but you get on with it.
@@andrewmcneilismcneilis6596 Thank you, Andrew. I appreciate both your response and your service.
I did two 6 month tours. And got extra hazard pay but I can honestly say I never joined for the money side of things.
1. In the 70's Emergency Tours were normally 4 months but could stretch to 6 months. Accomodation was typically in cramped portacabins or run down and disused factories etc. Accompanied Tours were ,I think , for 18 to 24 months. On these wives could accompany soldier husbands and live in married quarters within the confines of the military camp. Needless to say they were to the less dangerous parts of the province.
2. Combat pay? Haha, yes we got an extra 50p per day, though if your unit was normally stationed outside of the UK, ie Germany, then you would lose the LOA (Local Overseas Allowance) for that area. In effect you were taking a substantial pay cut to temporarily leave Germany and serve in Northern Ireland. As for 'Top choice of next assignment', not a chance. You and your unit would simply return from whence you came and carry on life as normal. Within 12 to 18 months chances were you'd be going through Ireland Training again in readiness for another deployment. I did 1972/3, 1974, 1976 and 1978.
3. If your unit was posted to Northern Ireland, you went, no ifs and buts, and why would there be? It's the Army we joined. A small rear party would remain at your normal location to keep things ticking over admin and accomodation wise, and wives and families would remain there too unless you were on an accompanied tour. The only people I knew to volunteer for Ireland were the Ghurkas I was on a course with, and they were refused. That said, most lads wanted to go and serve with their mates anyway.
4. An average day on an Emergency tour would consist of 8 hours patrol (2 or 3 x 2hr patrols plus briefings/debriefs, meals etc; 8hrs QRF (Quick Reaction Force) where you could rest to a degree but were with your section and in a high state of readiness for any (frequent) call out; 8hrs rest including weapon cleaning, admin, personal laundry, bathing and shaving etc. I don't recall sleeping between sheets very often though I did take my boots off a few times.
R & R (Rest and Recuperation) consisted of a 4 day mid tour break, with free flights back to your family in the UK. I proposed during mine in December '72 and 3 days later I was back in Armagh for another couple of months. There were no other days off during the tour, just the 4 days. Weekends didn't exist. There was usually a bit of leave once the tour was over. A week or so.
I'll never forget those times.
@@kevinwhitmill2599 what rank did you get to?
Don't invade a country. That simple!! They left India and I believe I seen in the news some years ago, England apologized to India. Exit Ireland & prepare to be charged with genocide. There are consequences to invading another people's country. I am English if it matters.
The majority of the Northern Irish population want to remain part of the UK, it's a small percentage of people who support the IRA in Northern Ireland. No genocide has occurred in Northern Ireland btw.
Your referring to the uk not England which it is
@@harryj7341 There is no Northern Ireland, it is the North of Ireland. Your ignorance is astounding.
@@mob3144 Not sure where you got that from, it's literally called Northern Ireland.
@@harryj7341 By brits. It is actually the north of Ireland. Six counties stolen from the Irish and peopled by planters to keep the natives under control. The same method used in all the british colonies. The term you use was coined in 1922 to name a tract of land not given back to Irish people by britain.
The map of Belfast's nationalist/unionist areas at 15:33 has changed beyond all recognition. Area's marked as Loyalist like Dunmurry, Stranmillis, Ballynafeigh, Upper Galwally, Finaghy North are all majority Catholic now. If it kicked off again the soldiers would have a hard time identifying potential enemy due to the increase in nationalist population in the last 40 years.
United Ireland is truly inevitable
United Ireland is the best solution,from a pragmatic point of view..I would say that the protestants will agree also..I personally consider then to be Irish
@@jangowan5742 That is those that feel Irish, there are mainly a British population living with irish people.
It's not that hard small minority are involved and they are known most cctv per square mile is not nothing
Till we all muster for the last time , rip lads , heroes all .
The presence of British troops in Northern Ireland literary saved thousands of lives . Civil order had broken down by August 1969 and a definite mass conflict and slaughter would have resulted had troops not been dispatched.
It’s ironic that the Nationalist population would have borne the brink of the ethnic cleansing, and that is the community that cries most about the Army’s excesses . Bloody Sunday and Ballymurphy would have been daily events without the presence of the army .
Over the 30 yr period of Operation Banner the British army did an exemplary job in stabilising the situation whilst the Politicians worked out a settlement .
A very well thought out comment instead of an armchair warrior type comment. I just wanted to add, the early years of Op Banner, when the British Army had to change its tactics, adapt the 'Yellow Card' rules, mistakes, deadly mistakes took place. I have no idea why at the time clear investigations never took place regarding Bloody Sunday or Ballymurphy, but I do know from my time in the late 80s and mid 90s, well before you aimed your weapon and pulled the trigger you knew damned well the consequences if you were doing so illegally.
You are an idiot. Basically you said if the Brits hadn't commited the Ballymurphy and Bogside mass murders then loyalists would have, so there is nothing to complain about.
Twisted man, twisted.
@@OhEidirsceoil You need to read the comment properly, then research the history of the Troubles, armchair warrior.
@@AnonAnonAnon Are you from Ireland? My comment was for P Cooney anyway. If I read anymore about the history of the period in the North of Ireland that people call the "troubles" I doubht I will learn anymore tbh. I am very qualified and old enough to make comment on the facts of life in my own country and the occupation. Thank you very much
@@OhEidirsceoil Yes.
"The guys we're dealing with are not thick paddies....."
Truer words were never spoken.
@@mattycosta9074 BIt like the paras on Bloody Sunday, then.
@@maltesetony9030 well said
@@mattycosta9074 Yes, they got-off scot-free thanks to Lord Widgery's parody of an enquiry after he had been leaned-on by PM Ted Heath.
@@mattycosta9074 There is no case for British troops in northern Ireland They brought nothing but trouble. They turned local people into killers They were the cause of it . As for bloody Sunday They shoot down people who were doing nothing wrong and they were the law. So please dont defend them . And don't come back telling me what others done wrong there because it will never justified what they done wrong there. Bloody sunday was the water shed moment when northern Ireland people had enough. I was a john hume fan and he stood up to the soldiers and asked them to stop shooting
Just take a look at this documentary/reportage and forget which side of the fence you might favour.
If it requires 10,000 (and at times there were almost treble that amount) fully armed and trained combat soldiers to keep a lid on a generations-long civil uprising then that is a failed state.
The presence of the soldiers was always a symptom, rather than a cause, of the unsustainable nature of the failed state in the north of Ireland.
There was no normality because lack of normality (democracy, equal access to civil rights, housing, employment etc.) was baked into the failed northern state from its inception in 1921.
Rubbish, by the time this was made, late 80's early 90's, civil rights and equality were well on the way to being put in place. Failed state? We are still here 100 years old and still going strong. Power sharing in place, devolution. The only problem is the bitter people who still endure, the haters. The parasite paramilitaries still abusing kids and selling drugs.
@@thepub245 Fair point about the bitter people who cling to hatred etc. But, Neal, here's the rub. You use the pronoun 'we' and you talk on behalf of the 45% (and growing rapidly) of the population of the northern statelet who would, in reality, more likely agree with me that it is a failed state. The 'we' seems to indicate inclusion at first glance, but in reality that 'we' indicates that either you are talking on behalf of only 55% of the population (not very inclusive) or the 'we' means that the other 45% have no valid voice or agency (colonial outdated approach).
Of course, I may be totally wrong here Neal, and have misjudged you and you intentions, and have missed your desire to build a new a properly inclusive society. In which case I look forward to having this conversation with you in Irish this time next year.
@@liamevans1630 Spot on Sir.
@@liamevans1630 Knock yourself out with your Irish language Liam. I am not interested in it but if someone wants to speak it or use it, that's their business. I don't agree with it being rammed down peoples throats or tax payers having to pay for it though. Is it not a bit of a useless thing in the 21st century though? English is where its at, just the way the world is. It would be more useful to learn Mandarin Chinese or something. Only saying mate.
@@liamevans1630 Oh and it take me much longer than a year to learn Irish! I can speak a bit of German though. 🤣🤣
North Howard street mill, recognised the mess room straight away…
Where you there
@@malsmith1618 yes in 1982, 1WFR
It was the next street to me it is now a hostel for young homeless families
Lambs to the slaughter in many ways, they were lied to by their own government, maimed, injury or death unfortunately. PTSD was suffered by everyone, and for truely what.. many would ask today.
Everyone knew they didn't want to be there, and they also did too.
So sad
Not as bad as the IRA who lied to their own sheep like cult members that it was an honourable thing to starve yourself to death to stir up hate and violence, like the pathetic Bobby Sands.
The ones to blame for any conflict are not the ones doing the fighting. They are the ones counting the money they made from it.
Those Derry girls where gorgeous. Happy days.
Meet my husband in derry 1976 he was in the army
Good looking girls...until they opened their gobs.
@@samain11 true lol. But when your 21 your full of totestetone so he gives a shit!
Yeah, why are they so beautiful?
@@richardcrook2112 when your 19 and full of totestarone locked away for 6 months believe me there beautiful???
The freddy Mercury looking soldier had the ira mentality all wrong the fact he knew a volunteers name was just another reason for him to become a huge bullseye
Wasn't just one who knew FFS
@@goth_dude6874 no shit Sherlock the point still stands
They were lucky they were fighting an army that observed the rule of law. Many others would just have disappeared the known activists, the US armed forces amongst them. Never more than 300 active service PIRA in NI, could have been ended in a weekend in other circumstances.
@@montycasper4300 the rule of law? Does that include the massacre of 14 civilians?
@@stephenbradshaw6488 That same crap again. Two sides to that story and PIRA using crowds to hide snipers was standard practice. However using Para's for riot control wasn't too bright either. Either way, dwarfed in scale and sheer malevolence by the thousands murdered and mutilated by republican psychopathic criminals. The loyalist thugs were no better. Nothing was achieved, complete waste of time, money and suffering. More could have been done, sooner, through social and political activism. Nobody outside of Ireland CGF whether Ulster stays in the Union or becomes part of China, that will only ever occur by referendum.
"I signed up to defend the country, and Northern Ireland is part of the country" bzzzzzzt sorry you got that one wrong, occupier.
They should've have even been their at all.
there you are
I’d like to think that if an Irish army was patrolling the streets of a British town and pulling out arm pit hairs that any able British patriot would do there best to stop them
I think you'll find they are In South Lebanon
I'd think you find that they are alot more professional than their British counter parts and have strict rules and regulations on dealing with civils, UK soldiers had the same but the irish follow theirs.
Blame the British government, shouldn’t try taking what’s not yours.
Despite the UK still owning NI lmao
@@eclipsegfxable well..yea that@s kind of what started the "troubles" genius..
@@dimebagdarrel00 You're still welcome to come try take it back anytime boy.
@@eclipsegfxable you got beat by farmers…gtfo
@@eclipsegfxable Your pfp ffs.. dont try sounding too treating now little boy.
I saw with my own eyes. Things were quite in the 90's brits where still using land rovers with open tops . A women in her sixties climbed up the side of a jeep and started fighting with a soldier. A crowed gathered and said what is wrong? An officer arrived and tried to calm things down and asked what is the problem. She said look at his gloves It said UVF.
Nonsense lol. On his gloves said UVF? Wise up!
@@frosty_soda You do understand what "My own eyes " means?
It was super gran
The nerve of these British army terrorists calling the indigenous people of this land terrorists. Typical Brit mentality.
The Irish government called them terrorists too. Take your own advice and "read a history book".
Terror is terror whatever your motive
Feel for the welsh soldier poor guy they shouldn’t of been there but I am sorry on behalf of the Irish people for your injuries
What are you talking about ? They may be young lads thrown into a conflict they know nothing about, but at the end of the day that’s not our problem, 14 people in Derry murdered by those animals , they shouldn’t have been there in the first place 🇮🇪 , on a personal level I get on with the English and the British in general but when it comes to the north I don’t
@@m_c_squared you dont have a clue what your talking about i bet your from the south you never even fkn experienced what we lived tru up here
The British soldiers in Ireland is no different to the Russian soldiers in Ukraine. Its ironic now with the British arming Ukraine to the teeth and giving the 'resistance' their unwavering support against the tyrant invaders - yet when the Irish resisted the British called them terrorists. History written by the.....ah you know the rest. Peace.
So why are Republican terrorists giving support to Putin? Why do they agree with his land grab?
The United Kingdom is England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
I like the way there actually seemed to be fairly honest.. about smacking people ect ..
First for every thing...
Are Bloody Sunday and the Ballymurphy massacre also valiant stories of the British armies conduct in Ulster
Yes
@Yourda 473i póg mó thóin
@settle down Beavis is giving orders to the uvf to shoot up a catholic school the good morals of the British army
@BossmanFromEnds shouldn’t have been there in the first place, if catholics weren’t being treated so badly by the unionist that also shouldn’t have been there, the troubles wouldn’t have started
@BossmanFromEnds Ah yes,every catholic was an IRA volunteer or an IRA supporter and therefore every catholic civilian killed by the British Army was guilty as charged. Very clever
Interesting to see the regimental badge of the UDR on the beret at 15-40. Under the crown is a harp, which I thought was a symbol more related to Ireland as a whole, particularly Catholic Ireland, or as things stood then and now, the Republic. It's not something that I would expect the predominantly Protestant soldiers of the UDR, to proudly wear or even relate to.
The harp as you said was for all of Ireland not just one part a bit like today the 🌈 can be fore one group or these two years NHS .
The harp has been used on Irish regimental insignia as part of the armed forces of the UK for centuries. Religion was never part of it either- over a third of Nelson’s Navy was composed of Irish Catholics. Very often attracted by a steady wage rather than any particular devotion to mainland Britain. The Irish-Catholic contribution to the armed expansion of the Empire was absolute gigantic, often providing some of the best officers the Army and Navy has ever seen. Too many to even begin to list. The UDR is obviously a historical oddity regarding religion, but the harp was never seen as solely representing Catholic identity.
@@TodayFreedom Yea. I know a bit about the Irish contribution to Britain's military success over the years, and the use of the harp in insignia. I read somewhere that the Duke of Wellington, himself Anglo-Irish, had many Irish troops in his armies, especially in the Peninsular campaign. However, the UDR was formed in 1970, just after the troubles started. It never had many Catholics in it, and through most of the troubles, was over 95% Protestant. With their sheer hatred of all things they saw as Irish, like Catholicism, or seeing the Irish tri-colour being displayed in those days, and obviously fighting Irish republicans, as well as seeing themselves as British. I found it surprising that such an insignia was chosen, instead of some type of symbol, that was seen as being neutral.
@@TodayFreedom The harp has been a
symbol of Ireland for a thousand years. Long before the Normans or the plantations. British regiments or the RUC using the harp is called cultural theft.
My grandfather and one of his brothers served in the Royal Irish Regiment 1685 - 1922. It has a harp and crown but no maid of erin on it. Northern regiments in WW1 for instance had the maid of erin on their cap badges and reigments and regiments from the south did not. These days the new Royal Irish regiment try to claim a relationship with the old Royal Irish who were also known as the 18th Regiment of Foot. The new Royal Irish Regiment are basically the UDR.
All are British 🇬🇧 soldiers are Heros, thank you for your Service and Lest we forget
No, the Irish are.
Funny way how the British government treats their veterans, discarded and lots living on the streets
‘He was off work for about a week’ 😂😂😂
You can tell by the comments that 90% of the people commenting are not Irish and know nothing of what really went on
I’m a yank/plastic paddy, I wrote my dissertation on the Troubles and this comment deserves more likes. Fact of the matter is that I wouldn’t exist without partition or the famine. So it annoys me when they deny or downplay their atrocities in Ireland.
@@MCKevin289 There was no famine.
@@MCKevin289 Ireland went through many famines, nothing to do with the British. End of the day most of the public wanted to stay in the Uk but rebals along with americans politicians funded the rebals and later ira. Ireland was a full meber of the Uk and ran the British empire.
@@markymark7803
I’m well aware, my focus in undergrad was in Irish history lol. A lot of policies and military tactics used for the conquest of the Native Americans were born in Ireland.
@@MCKevin289 So you will be well aware of the atrocities Ireland carried out instead of downplaying them and playing them off as victims.
When was this Island ever a peace? If you read the history you will find the very early days of documented history where the tribes fought themselves for land cattle and to enslave their enemy. I worked in hospitals most of my life and I have seen so horrific carnage of innocent people. The images I have seen will live with me until I die. At present, I dislike every politician we have and if I were younger I would out of this beautiful island of ours because of the hatred that has been here for thousands of years.
Well James you make a valid point. It certainly was not at peace after the Welsh Normans came to Ireland. Then the Tudors. After that Oliver Cromwell and his version of ISIS came. After that there was yet another English civil war fought on Irish soil. After that you have a crop failure and then famine. Though a famine is essentially when there is no food. In this case it was food being exported at gunpoint which was a huge issue and hey well you cant fish as that was illegal also. I see this part of Irish history as a genocide. Not a racial one but a genocide against the poorest of the poor. Britain is reaping what it sowed and will do so throughout the world for years to come.
@@anthonycosgrave8539 well sir
When were Israel and Palestine at peace? I see little difference here.
@@anthonycosgrave8539 Ireland was fighting long before the British ever arrived, or even existed, like all places. Does not matter how much you seeth and cry.
@@retardcapital2976 Ah denial is a wonderful thing for the brain dead. Lets count genocides. Or maybe the first to set up concentration camps. Oh wait Britain wins again. Thats 2 in Ireland and one in India. And of course South Africa was the first concentration camp set up by the Brits. Oh wow what an example. Anyhoo the BBC says that there is a shortage of Clowns in NI. So why not apply you meet all the requirements.
At the end the soldier who lost his leg i was there it was in odessa street it was the black soldier who shot the dog
When we were out on the ground at 4AM 5AM about to return to base white rocks or macrory we would see a milk float or a milk delivery van 1 guy would stop it and talk to the driver, and 3 would rob bacon eggs milk bread ,We knew there would be nothing in the cookhouse untill 6 30 AM and we were hungry . Then the CO said stop robbing food off Milkmen and made the cookhouse 24 hours .Kerching .
I expect they have a greater comprehension today of their actions and why they were disliked so much, even hated. No wonder they suffer from PTSD and huge guilt to this day
Most if not all the soldiers were unemployable in the real world, the army was their only option as a result, scary to think the authorities let these individuals run around with fire arms.
They’re kids. You couldn’t handle being a combat solder without p**ping your pants.
@@paulbentley1705 They were illiterate adults, social outcasts, the army being their only option in life which speaks volumes. Even today similar adults join up for the same reasons…………..unemployable.
@dan2665 And yet even Irish comedian McSavage referred to their opponents as "unemployed men with rifles".
You speak for yourself @dan2665.
What a load of 💩. Someone's bitter 😂
I feel sorry for all the British soldiers who served in Northern Ireland (apart from a small minority). They were ill used in support of a wrong.
Best wishes to them.
They were victorious!
Ill used? Sometimes, yes. In the cause of wrong, trying to stop human bombings and kneecappings? No.
@@invisibleman4827 Initially they acted as protectors of the Catholic minority and were welcomed as such. However thereafter, in reacting to the civil unrest and being in unfamiliar territory as they were, they were primarily under the guidance the Unionist RUC and NI government. This meant employing troops against Catholics in rounding up internees and trashing houses looking for arms. On an individual level the British soldiers were undoubtedly mainly ordinary decent men but they ended up taking a side in the conflict
@winterishere9828 They were misdirected at a level, which was unhelpful. Ultimately, the IRA was an extremist group as much as their UVF counterparts, and both were lying about "protecting" their own communities.
A powerful documentary. I had a father in the RUC and an uncle in the UDR and people need to see the constant stress and anxiety faced by not just those who served in operation banner. And the legacy of mental health issues . Myself have been battling PTSD and depression since i was a child due to what i seen and went through. God bless all who served in operation banner
Guilty conscience eh
@@gjm5890 what i have to be feel guilty about. You try living with PTSD and trauma and manic depression for over nearly 40 years. Hurt and evil was done on both sides. I would rather see money being put into helping ALL who suffered get help with their mental health and start living their lives instead of existing.
@@waynerafferty1048 Google use of Psychedelics for PTSD, depression etc..............Bless.............
boo hoo
The anxiety is self inflicted.
That tanned chap looks like Freddie Mercury 😂
even the sickest serial killer can have a sympathetic story. doesnt mean that they are worth wasting empathy on. You signed up and spent the wages. Ignorance is no excuse. In fact its the perfect demonstration of a superiority complex; like you're literally going to take up arms, go to a land far from home and not do some cursory research beforehand?
you may be changed men today, we can all strive for redemption, but those lads back then who put on the uniform deserved everything they got and maybe worse. And i say that not just as someone whose family existed at the pointy end of that spear, but for all the people over the world the british military brutalised through the *centuries*. countless generations of young lads seeking adventure and glory in the viscera of defenceless people.
Some of these could probably barely write their own name