Bloody Sunday
It is on record where RUC aided and abbetted attacks on Civil Rights protestors. The Civil rights that Catholic population sought in NI in 1960's are those rest of UK had for decades but when they sought "equality" of treatment the Govt of NI turned on them.
Government in London could have acted and stopped it all very quickly but sadly it pandered to religious bigots in the Unionist community. Same ones that are propping up Tory Govt now. It is easy in hindsight to identify the key trigger points where intervention could have changed things but the Govt chose not to do it.
There will always be some in Uniform who do whatever they want irrespective of whatever law is in place. Pretending we cannot or will not review means people then view people in Uniform now in the same light. We have seen same from attitude of Black community to police because of police racism from 1960 onwards.
Ballymurphy and Bloody Sunday resulted in huge loss of life in the years following it, one side saw the other being able to kill at will and never being called to account.I challenge anybody honestly to state "Were they part of a community such as this, where the Civil Govt were making up laws and using Military to refuse basic right then they would just sit and do nothing.". Once the genie was let out of the bottle then it was never going to go back in.
Bloody Sunday was 50 years in the making and appreciate I am somewhat being a devils advocate here but the history shows again and again when the opportunity was there to do the right thing it was ignored.
The marching season was allowing one side supported by the mechanism of the state, to march triumpantly down streets where people of the other side lived. Nobody cared when they marched in a field but it was akin to allowing a NF march to go through Bradford and claim people have zero right to protest it.
It is on record where RUC aided and abbetted attacks on Civil Rights protestors. The Civil rights that Catholic population sought in NI in 1960's are those rest of UK had for decades but when they sought "equality" of treatment the Govt of NI turned on them.
Government in London could have acted and stopped it all very quickly but sadly it pandered to religious bigots in the Unionist community. Same ones that are propping up Tory Govt now. It is easy in hindsight to identify the key trigger points where intervention could have changed things but the Govt chose not to do it.
There will always be some in Uniform who do whatever they want irrespective of whatever law is in place. Pretending we cannot or will not review means people then view people in Uniform now in the same light. We have seen same from attitude of Black community to police because of police racism from 1960 onwards.
Ballymurphy and Bloody Sunday resulted in huge loss of life in the years following it, one side saw the other being able to kill at will and never being called to account.I challenge anybody honestly to state "Were they part of a community such as this, where the Civil Govt were making up laws and using Military to refuse basic right then they would just sit and do nothing.". Once the genie was let out of the bottle then it was never going to go back in.
Bloody Sunday was 50 years in the making and appreciate I am somewhat being a devils advocate here but the history shows again and again when the opportunity was there to do the right thing it was ignored.
It is on record where RUC aided and abbetted attacks on Civil Rights protestors. The Civil rights that Catholic population sought in NI in 1960's are those rest of UK had for decades but when they sought "equality" of treatment the Govt of NI turned on them.
Government in London could have acted and stopped it all very quickly but sadly it pandered to religious bigots in the Unionist community. Same ones that are propping up Tory Govt now. It is easy in hindsight to identify the key trigger points where intervention could have changed things but the Govt chose not to do it.
There will always be some in Uniform who do whatever they want irrespective of whatever law is in place. Pretending we cannot or will not review means people then view people in Uniform now in the same light. We have seen same from attitude of Black community to police because of police racism from 1960 onwards.
Ballymurphy and Bloody Sunday resulted in huge loss of life in the years following it, one side saw the other being able to kill at will and never being called to account.I challenge anybody honestly to state "Were they part of a community such as this, where the Civil Govt were making up laws and using Military to refuse basic right then they would just sit and do nothing.". Once the genie was let out of the bottle then it was never going to go back in.
Bloody Sunday was 50 years in the making and appreciate I am somewhat being a devils advocate here but the history shows again and again when the opportunity was there to do the right thing it was ignored.
The posts here, and the comments in the press, seem to imply that the soldiers on the ground fired "out of control" .. which implies a huge number of rounds fired randomly by a large number of soldiers.
Paragraph 166 shows that 107 rounds were fired by 21 soldiers .. an average of about 5 per soldier. 3 soldiers fired double figures , one was 22 , one was 13, one was 12. The majority of the others all fired less than 5, some only 1 or 2.
Whilst I was not there and therefore refuse to cast blame, this is hardly indicative of "out of control", "random firing" as is being implied.
They were very young lads, in a very difficult position, and once "someone" fired the first shot it would be very, very difficult to control ones fear. There but for the grace of god, and wearing the wrong colour uniform, went a very large nummber of folks. I did many an Op Banner run, and the troops we carried all just looked young and scared. I'm hardly surprised at their reaction, if I'm at all honest.
Paragraph 166 shows that 107 rounds were fired by 21 soldiers .. an average of about 5 per soldier. 3 soldiers fired double figures , one was 22 , one was 13, one was 12. The majority of the others all fired less than 5, some only 1 or 2.
Whilst I was not there and therefore refuse to cast blame, this is hardly indicative of "out of control", "random firing" as is being implied.
They were very young lads, in a very difficult position, and once "someone" fired the first shot it would be very, very difficult to control ones fear. There but for the grace of god, and wearing the wrong colour uniform, went a very large nummber of folks. I did many an Op Banner run, and the troops we carried all just looked young and scared. I'm hardly surprised at their reaction, if I'm at all honest.
