Naturally Unnatural Issue #7 6th June 2017 | Page 5

Issue #7, 6th June 2017
...continued from page 4
Throughout the conflict the IRA inflicted
serious attacks on the loyalists but the vio-
lence was escalated by the unionist/
loyalists, after a protest campaign by re-
publicans was met with violence by the
loyalists. This led to British troops being
deployed to initially support police and
protect Catholic civilians. Approximately
3,500 people were killed in conflict, 52%
of those being civilians the rest a mix of
British security forces and parliamentary
groups. It was in the 1980s that Sinn Fein
led by Gerry Adams, sought to end the
conflict and predicted it would be a long
process. He held talks with John Hume,
SDLP leader and secret talks with govern-
ment officials.
bomb throwers. The report being largely
criticised as a whitewash. It was this event
though that saw many Catholics switch
from seeing the British army as protectors
but as enemies, with young nationalists
becoming attracted to violent republican
groups. The Provisional IRA began to
gather more support in the wake of newly
radicalised, disaffected young people.
Throughout Sinn Fein had been the pro-
test and parliamentary group that led the
talks for the end to the conflict, but it was
the IRA wing who were inflicting vile at-
tacks on British and loyalists, however, the Throughout the conflict
British and the loyalists weren’t without
British forces colluded with loyalists with
fault. The event that is often credited for
escalating the disaffection from Catholics the De Silva report finding that 85% of the
intelligence used by loyalists came from
and nationalists was Bloody Sunday.
the security forces. The locally recruited
Sunday, Bloody Sunday
Ulster Defence Regiment by British troops
was almost entirely Protestant and despite
After British troops were deployed and
a vetting process, some loyalist militants
welcomed by Roman Catholics as a neu-
could enlist and by 1990, 197 UDR mem-
tral force, they shot 28 unarmed civilians
bers had been convicted of terror offenc-
during a peaceful protest march against
es. During the 70s and 80s there were 15
internment. Fourteen died with thirteen
individuals abducted by the republicans,
killed outright and another death of man
who were to be known as The Disap-
four months later was attributed to his in-
peared, only 9 bodies have ever been
juries. Many were shot trying to flee the
recovered as of 2015.
soldiers and some were shot trying to
help the wounded, some were injured by British government security forces that
included the Military Reaction Force
rubber bullets and batons, two were run
(MRF) carried out what is described as
down by army vehicles.
‘extrajudicial killings’ of unarmed civil-
In the immediate aftermath of the incident
ians. Victims often being Catholics of sus-
an enquiry was set up and largely cleared
pected Catholic civilians that were unaffil-
the soldiers and British authorities of
iated with any paramilitaries. Bloody Sun-
blame. Describing the shooting as
day wasn’t the only incident in 1972, there
“bordering on reckless ” but accepted the
were shootings in Andersonstown and
claims they were shooting at gunmen and
Whiterock Road later that year of un-
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armed Catholic civilians. A member of the
MRF stated in 1978 that they would often
attempt false flag operations to provoke
sectarian violence and a former member
stating, “we were not there to act like an
army unit, we were there to act like a ter-
ror group”.
Considerably more com-
plex than media portray-
al
Upon researching the IRA and Sinn Fein,
there were many tangents and complexi-
ties to the situation and conflict of that pe-
riod. The attacks and violence from both
sides were abhorrent and those who con-
tinued even after the Good Friday Agree-
ment aren’t representative of the likes of
Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness who
were working with the UK government for
a peace deal from the 80s, even before
that Sinn Fein themselves were a peaceful
protest group.
The actions of the IRA are and always will
be universally condemned but actions
from both loyalists and the British forces
had a direct cause on the growth of the
IRA in the early 70s. There is still signifi-
cantly more to the history that stretches
further back and gives more foundations
as to why the IRA rose to significance, de-
spite attempts by Sinn Fein to remain true
to their foundations of a passive resistance
and the eventual reunification of Ireland.