Memories of the Troubles

Johnny Foreigner

Do any of you have memories of the Troubles?
I can remember as a child in the early 1980's passing through a British Army check point on the border of Leitrim and Fermanagh. I was terrified by the soldiers with there machine guns pointing at my parents car.
I think its much better now that when you cross the border the only visible changes, are the road signs and road markings.

mark5

tom oliver missing for a week and then found on the side of a road in armagh

John Doe1

I live on the donegal/tyrone border. I remember loads of stories as a kid of bombs in strabane 5 mins away which was scary. I was in Omagh the day before the omagh bombing again very scary.

SoulTrader

Used to pass over the border from Donegal to Derry a lot with my Mum when I was a kid. The British Army soldiers were always really polite, honestly never had a problem with them. Looking back, I guess it was strange that there were armed checkpoints, but I was only young and that was the norm to me.

flanum

me dad lending pat o'neil his car for the weekend after pat doing 15 years with the maguires, anyways yeah the car gettin stripped to the bone and the brit lads lettin pat ring the garda in cavan to ring me dad to go up and put the car back together with english army lads pointin guns at them..... subsequently it turns out pat didnt make bombs for the maguires in birmingham and there all innocent.. still waitin for an apology from the brum squaddie lol!! actually it wasnt birmingham, it was guildford, but the whole lot ties up... yeah ****ty memories of the troubles op!

Chuck Stone

Yep. I remember when an anti-Catholic murder gang blew up the Catholic Church in our town.

The Catholic church building was badly damaged in a Loyalist bomb attack at 11.45pm on Sunday 11 October 1981. The church had just been built and was nearing completion at the time of the attack. The church reopened following the expolsion on Sunday 21 November 1982. The attack on the church prompted the Rev. David Armstrong, who was then Presbyterian minster, to offer his sympathy to the local Catholic priest and his congregation. This contact led to hostility towards Armstrong from within his own Protestant community and eventually to his being forced to leave his church and Northern Ireland in April 1985.

Kanoe

remember a bomb scare in the shopping centre across from our estate and everyone was evacuated :pac:
Scared the crap out of me though, I thought we were all going to die :pac: (i was only little)
They carried out a controlled explosion and turned out it was just a hoax.

krudler

not really, the further south you go the less it mattered. even watching stuff on the news happening a few hundred miles away felt like it was another country altogether.

KeithAFC

The bombing of my town by the IRA.

PseudoFamous

KeithAFC wrote: »

The bombing of my town by the IRA.

That narrows it down. We'll just look for the house with the union jack on it then, and we'll find you.

myflipflops

My main issue with the North from back then was the few times a year when Match of the Day came on and it was Larne versus f*cking Distillery or something of the like in the IFA Cup instead of the Premier League.

amacachi

Dundalk motherfcukers, I win so far.

DEFTLEFTHAND

I remember as a child been terrified of N.I and its people. My Dad went up to Belfast on business one time and I cried all night thinking he was going to get shot.:o

Cavehill Red

I grew up on a murder mile.

I saw our milkman shot dead in front of me walking to school one morning.

I have permanent damage to one kidney from having the butt of a Para's rifle slammed into it as a child for identifying myself to him as Michael Mouse.

My father and I worked on Friday evenings for a charity, work which involved collating collections of money and cheques and sorting the paperwork. We were robbed by some 'off-duty' moonlighting Provos who taped up the mouths of some kids who were present, tied everyone up and threatened to pistol-whip me if I didn't identify for them the envelope with the cheques inside. Despite them wearing masks, I knew them from their voices. When word got out that I had told the cops, I was 'visited' by Sinn Fein and warned not to testify against them, even though they had robbed a charity for themselves and not the 'movement'. I testified anyway, and still have to keep a low profile in parts of the neighbourhood.

Another time, on the charity run, we were stopped at a red light near Ormeau bridge only for a car to blow up about 30 yards in front of us. Had we not stopped at the light, it would have blown us to bits.

I have on two occasions been chased through town late at night by gangs of feral Loyalists simply for being suspected of being Catholic. On one occasion, had an out of service Belfast citybus driver not pulled over, I could well have been beaten to death, as they'd just caught me.

I dated a Protestant girl when I was 15. I could not visit her home for fear that I wouldn't get back out of the estate. On a number of occasions, she was physically attacked for 'riding a fenian.'

I have friends from all sides of the divide. Both my siblings are in what we call 'mixed marriages'. Everyone of us faced repeated threats, abuse and intimidation for fraternising with 'the enemy'.

Quite a few of my class ended up in jail. About a dozen I grew up with are now dead, all but two (a car crash, a junkie) as a result of the Troubles, either terrorism or suicide.

So yes, like I suppose many people, I have many memories of the Troubles. All bad. Thank God we managed to get beyond those dark days of my childhood. It's an infinitely improved place today, for all its existing problems.

Oranage2

It was the mid nineties in Belfast, maybe 93. I was 6 years old and we parked outside a fast food restaurant. We went inside and it was like nothing I've ever witnessed before, the place was called kfc.

batistuta9

Oranage2 wrote: »

It was the mid nineties in Belfast, maybe 93. I was 6 years old and we parked outside a fast food restaurant. We went inside and it was like nothing I've ever witnessed before, the place was called kfc.

Ahh Kentucky Fried Catholics

The Scientician

The checkpoint at Aughnacloy and elsewhere, the barriers up in most towns in the north, British Army patrols, Chinooks etc. But the main thing I remember was my brother or sister telling me not to point my finger out the window of the van or the British Army might think it was a gun and shoot me.

later12

My only memory of the troubles is that I associated it with bedtime.

Nine o'clock news was bedtime in our house.

I'm not being glib by the way, I'm very thankful that this is the extent of my memory of such an awful time in British & Irish history.

pragmatic1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NswpCTliqxo

pragmatic1

I remember checkpoints, bomb scares and people getting killed or maimed basically every day on the news.

Zebra3

I remember as a kid being brought up to Newry once and seeing the RUC barracks with all the fencing around them. Even though 'd seen it on the news it was quite a shock.

Then I started going up to Derry to watch the Reds play and walking around the Brandywell and the Bog looking at all the murals in the early 90s with the Brits whizzing past crapping themselves.

Big Nasty

Sunday drives to Wicklow down by Glen Of The Downs there was a mural on a wall the top of a hill that read 'Free Nicky Kelly'.

Meow_Meow

My dad is originally from the north, so we used to go up pretty frequently to visit relatives. I remember going through a checkpoint and a soldier with the head of his gun literally pointing into the car asked what our surname was. We have a Scottish sounding surname, so he assumed we were Protestant (which we are not) and said "oh, sorry- drive on good sir!" and laughed. My dad has some pretty depressing stories but I get a feeling that he doesn't tell us half of it. The ones he has told of us have been just blatant discrimination regarding work.

bicardi19

Our school used to constantly get bomb scares and we would all have to be evacuated to the local hotel.

My parents also had a pub which had many a bomb scare.

When you grow up with it though it doesn't seem to big a deal.

I thought at the time to be a child in the playground and ask a soldier could you look through his gun was normal.

gcgirl

MCMLXXV wrote: »

Sunday drives to Wicklow down by Glen Of The Downs there was a mural on a wall the top of a hill that read 'Free Nicky Kelly'.

In every packet of cornflakes )

starbelgrade

On a trip to Belfast, an off duty British soldier was shot in the head & killed by the IRA in a pub I was having a drink in.

The pub was full of Saturday shoppers, mostly couples and families with kids. It was the most brutal, horrific & cowardly things I have ever witnessed in my entire life.

Belfast is a hugely different place these days - full of nice bars, restaurants, shops & there's a much more relaxed, friendly atmosphere. Such a change from the times of the Troubles.

And yet you still get fuckwit extremists from both sides wanting to rock the peace boat which is baffling.

Cavehill Red

starbelgrade wrote: »

Belfast is a hugely different place these days - full of nice bars, restaurants, shops & there's a much more relaxed, friendly atmosphere. Such a change from the times of the Troubles.

Very good point. It's unrecognisable to what it once was. It literally didn't have a city centre when I was young. You'd get on the bus, the cops would walk up and down checking it for bombs, there were big gates surrounding the central area which were closed at night. So all that nightlife now literally didn't exist then and that's why there are still so few bars in the very centre of town.

You got frisked walking into shops. Stopped by armed soldiers and made to open your schoolbag and identify yourself. And it all seemed normal, just as similar scenarios no doubt seem normal to young Israelis and Palestinians today. But you knew it wasn't like anywhere else, because on TV, programmes from England or America or the Republic showed that no one else had to live in that horror.

It's unimaginably different now. There was a time I literally dreaded returning, even after the ceasefires. Now I look forward to visiting. I never thought I'd be saying that.

stovelid

I quite clearly remember the era (70s) of the bombings and dirty protests when I was a kid in England. My parents were Irish/Republicans and there were always pictures/leaflets and newspapers around and other pub collection stuff. I also remember the police searching our house as they did to a lot of English-based Republicans in those times.

Big Nasty

gcgirl wrote: »

In every packet of cornflakes )

Huh?

stovelid

MCMLXXV wrote: »

Huh?

It was a big joke at the time:

Free Nicky Kelly ...(with every packet of [insert name of product])

seamus

Thankfully I don't really have many. Never visited the North as a child. First time was on a bus en route to the Donegal Gaeltacht in 1995, there was a ceasefire on, so there were no checkpoints. I can still recall seeing the heavily fortified and barbed-wired buildings at the border though. It was like nothing I'd ever seen before.

My only other memories are of hearing the news of another bombing or killing every other day.

2ygb4cmqetsjhx

My granny used to take me and my cousin to Belfast every christmas to do some shopping. I was very young. I could walk but I was also young enough to be wheeled around in a pram. Id say it was around 1992-1993.

I remember distinctly sitting in the buggy crying because my Granny was talking to a British soldier and he had a gun. I was trying to unstrap myself from the pram so that I could run away!

the_syco

I remember staying at a holiday house that belonged to a friend of the family, and queuing for an hour in the car to get past the checkpoint, to get into NI to goto a nearby supermarket.

=-=

Now a days, I goto Belfast quite regularly, mainly going to metal pubs in Belfast city. You'd see people from both sides (a few covered in tattoos of their religions past), and I never got hassled.

Fratton Fred

Chuck Stone wrote: »

Yep. I remember when an anti-Catholic murder gang blew up the Catholic Church in our town.

Our local CofI reverend started off in Belfast and he often talks about the time the Catholic church near him suffered an arson attack.

He suggested to the church vestry that they offer the parish hall to the Priest so they could use it for services whilst their church was being repaired.

The reaction he got shocked him, as he put it, you would have thought they were being asked to sacrifice their first born child.

Bigotry like that is hard to understand.

A friend of mine grew up I'm South Belfast. Her brother was badly beaten up for being a taig by the local loyalist bullyboys, then a few weeks later he was asked to do some "errands" to help with the cause. When he told those guys to **** off, they gave him a beating that put him in hospital.

Whilst visiting her brother in hospital, my friend watched the news of the two corporals dragged from a car and beaten to death. At that point she decided humanity in northern ireland had died.

Two days later she got on the ferry to Stranrear and vowed never to go back.

Teyla Emmagan

We used to go through the North a lot when we were kids to visit Granny (or when things were really bad, the long way around by Bundoran). My memory is of huge queues, young guys with big scary guns, and the massive fortifications at the checkpoints. And being afraid that the car would break before we reached Donegal. I remember my uncle giving me a dig when I spoke to one of the checkpoint guides and being really nervous as a result (possibly because we were busily involved in some cross border chicken smuggling at the time).

Anyway, it wasn't exactly pleasant.

Fear Uladh

Thankfully I grew up when it was over.

We still had the protestant/catholic divide and we (Irish) lads always fought with them, when I reached 11 I remember thinking 'WTF are we fighting for?!'.

Thankfully I had a neutral group of people I hung around with in college and never experienced much sectarianism.

My older family members however were not so lucky and it is easy to figure out why there had to be a retaliation, even my protestant/English friends from college would agree.


N.I. is a now peaceful place and Belfast is a top spot to go shopping or a night out.

jester77

My PE teacher was a member of the IRA and done time. They didn't want to give him his job back after he was released but he won the court case. First class we had, he told us all to line up so we all stood up against the wall and put our hands in the air.

linfield

Remember the first time I crossed the border as a kid and I drove through a wee village in Donegal. Saw a police station there and was amazed at the lack of security around it.

Was young during the troubles but know all too well about loyalist paramilitaries unfortunately.

Defiler Of The Coffin

My manager told me about how when he was in college in Belfast he got searched by the police in a shopping centre, they found a device on him with wires and other bits and pieces hanging out of it. It was his electronics project but he had a hard time convincing them of it

RichieC

jerry adams with an actors voice... bout it...

Nforce

I was in secondary school when the hunt for The Border Fox was taking place...Still remember the Garda checkpoints.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnXnQe0USxI

My wife's uncle was murdered by the Provos in 1983.

Nforce

Defiler Of The Coffin wrote: »

My manager told me about how when he was in college in Belfast he got searched by the police in a shopping centre, they found a device on him with wires and other bits and pieces hanging out of it. It was his electronics project but he had a hard time convincing them of it

I grew up in the UK during the 70's,during the "mainland" IRA bombing campaign. My old man (Irish born and reared) was once working laying gas mains beside an Army barracks. He had a large tin box,probably an old biscuit tin, which had his lunch in it. Later in the day the whole crew decided to take a break...and fupp off to a local bar for some refreshments. A couple of hours passed and when they came back to the work site the whole area was cordoned off with army personnel,cops and bomb squad all milling around. Turns out that my father had left his lunch box behind and the authorities put 2 and 2 together and thought that it was a bomb! He got a bit of a bollicking for that one.:o:eek:

Plazaman

In the mid 80's, early 90's our local Youth Club used to do a lot of North/South Exchanges with Youth Clubs in the North. Was bemused at first at things like them telling us not to walk on a certain side of the street or go into certain shops.

I remember staying with host family just outside Enniskillen when the Hillsborough Disaster happened in 89. A group of us were in Enniskillen Town Centre the next day talking about it and we were stopped and frisked by 3 soldiers who obviously heard our accents. My first time being frisked by fellas with guns, didn't shít myself but was damn near touching cloth.

Another time we were staying in a Community Centre in Belfast but the local youth leaders forgot to let the then RUC know. Was in a dorm dozing when myself and two others were woken up to guns being pointed at us. We explained who we were and knew the main group, including leaders, were watching videos in the hall. Three of us walk in the door to hall with hands raised, cue laughter from the assembled group thinking we were taking the píss. I'll never forget the total change of mood and faces when four RUC lads came in after us with guns still drawn.

Never spoiled my attitude of the place though and I still love visiting Enniskillen and especially Belfast, great city.

Cool_CM

Chuck Stone wrote: »

The attack on the church prompted the Rev. David Armstrong, who was then Presbyterian minster, to offer his sympathy to the local Catholic priest and his congregation. This contact led to hostility towards Armstrong from within his own Protestant community and eventually to his being forced to leave his church and Northern Ireland in April 1985.

Remember seeing him speak in Cork a few years ago, he said that he would still get the odd threat along the lines of "we can come down, kill you and be back over the border before anybody finds your body". Scary stuff.

Also quite fitting to see that when his own church burnt down (electrical fault), the local catholic church offered him the use of theirs.

http://churchofireland.net/news/1054

A Dub in Glasgo

I dived for cover when an IRA bomb exploded near me whilst I watched the Bloody Sunday commemoration in Derry in 1990. Charlie Love was one of those on the commemoration and he was killed by flying masonry. He was 16.

I was visiting my friend in Carndonagh, Co. Donegal for the weekend and we were getting the bus back to Dublin later that day. We then decided to watch the commemoration. The British Army and RUC were very jumpy afterwards and I was assaulted by a soldier (rifle butt to the shoulder) who wanted to know what I was doing in Derry that day.

Dionysus

I think of it every Halloween, when people use the phrase: "Trick of Treat".

I still remember the blond guy's massive grin, this guy, as he was taken away.

Marie Jones's play, A Night in November, which was inspired by the "trick of treat" jeers of Northern Ireland soccer supporters the following week at the NI-RoI match, was one of the finest plays I've ever seen. Very poignant.

starviewadams

Remember a photographer who worked with my mam showing me the blood stained rubber bullet he was hit with when he was working on the Garvaghy Road when I was 7 or 8,couldn't believe how huge it was.

I also remember a few bomb scares on O'Connell Street in the early-mid 90's because I'd be in work with my mam on the school holidays and her offices would be evacuated.

I remember the border checkpoints when we'd be going to see my granny in Donegal,there'd be 1 Garda and a soldier on our side and about 15 British soldiers on NI side.And I remember the huge British Army base at Aughnacloy,remember a soldier searching the car and being amazed at his camouflage and his machine gun.

Tope

My mum’s from the North so we used to go up a lot when I was a kid in the 80s to visit family. I remember the border checkpoints, armed soldiers asking us where we were going and occasionally checking the boot of the car.

A few stories I remember; my uncles used to work on building sites and if they were ever working in a Protestant area they would call each other by Protestant-sounding names instead of their real names, like Sammy instead of Sean for instance, in case of attracting trouble.

My auntie used to run a little corner shop in Newry and there would be British soldiers on patrol on the street outside. One cold rainy day there was a young lad, about 19, stationed outside her shop for hours, looking freezing and miserable. She felt sorry for him and brought him out a Mars bar and a cup of tea, and he was really pleased and grateful. But I remember people were a bit shocked, saying she shouldn’t have done it and she could get herself in trouble. Luckily nothing came of it but I thought it was a sad state of affairs when a kind gesture like that could be frowned upon.

LowOdour

Living in the west, alot of my memories come from watching the nine o clock news...it always seemed to be one terrible story after another. I guess the story of Carol Ann Kelly is one that would stick in the mind from the 80's....it really shone a light on the inhumanity in some people

Sunnyisland

I was only eight but I clearly remember the civil rights marches on RTE 1 news,We only had a black & white tv but as we have relations living there it was a very big worry for my parents.Worse for my family was to come when my mothers sister my aunt was blown up by the UVF/british government in the Dublin bombings of 1974,I remember my mother very distraught and the unreal sense of what had happened,I was 12 then and even now its all very clear to me that terrible friday in may,Went to live in Belfast when I was 15 with my relations,needless to say I seen and heard many bombs and killings & riots,The huger strikes,la mon,enniskillen,Gibraltar,the 2 undercover soldiers dragged from there cars, greysteel,INLA infighting,the start of the peace people,They all had effects on my family & me in a lot of ways,There is of course lots more but actually writing it down brings back a lot of anger/sad emotions,just glad and hope that it never goes back to all that.

Chuck Stone

Our next-door-neighbour, a young Protestant woman, was killed in the Droppin Well bombing.

I was too young to understand what was going on and my parents had done their best to insulate us as children from sectarianism.

Actually they used to buy us munchies and set up chairs at the front of the house so we could watch the marching bands on the TWALTH.

I didn't even know I was from the minority community until I asked my parents what a 'Fenian bastard' was after some other kid called me it!