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On the afternoon of the 30th of January 1972, a
civil rights march passed through the streets of
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Derry/Londonderry. The protestors, around 15,000
strong, tried to move towards the city but were
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blocked by the British Army. Though most of the
crowd moved on to the Bogside, a no-go area for
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British forces, others began to throw stones
at the soldiers. Soon afterwards troops of
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the Parachute Regiment were then ordered to move
into the Bogside and begin arresting the crowd.
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Over the next half an hour One Para would
open fire on the demonstrators leaving 26
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injured and killing 13. A 14th man would
die several months later. This Humber Pig
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here at IWM London was on strength with One
Para at the time of Bloody Sunday. Ae don't
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actually know if it was actually there on the
day, but it certainly was one of their vehicles.
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Bloody Sunday was probably one of the most famous
or infamous incidents of the Troubles. However
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it was just one of many terrible incidents and
what became the bloodiest year of the Troubles.
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In the first episode of our Troubles series,
we explored the origins of the conflict. Now,
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with the British Army deployed, a deadly
three-sided war began to be waged on
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Northern Irish streets. The violence would
cost thousands of lives, mostly civilian.
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But within the violence, all the sides
were beginning to change. By the 1980s,
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new strategies would emerge and ultimately
shape the future of Northern Ireland.
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The events of Bloody Sunday were a source of
outrage around the world. Three days later the
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British embassy in Dublin was burnt to the ground
by protestors, incensed by the killings. As the
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violence grew, the British Prime Minister Edward
Heath felt he had no choice but to suspended the
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Northern Irish parliament at Stormont and
impose direct rule from Westminster. This
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was intended as a short-term measure. But for the
Provisional IRA, it was exactly what they wanted.
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The IRA felt quite triumphant at the
time they wanted Britain drawn further
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into the conflict they could then frame
the narrative more as they wished to see
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it. The IRA in 1972 were operating
using the car bomb, a relatively
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indiscriminate form of weaponry as well as
open confrontation with the Army. However,
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the way the IRA operated would change in a
matter of a few years and they were reorganise
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themselves and settle themselves in for what
they knew would be a much longer struggle.
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The violence continued to intensify throughout
the rest of 1972. In response to Bloody Sunday,
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the Official IRA bombed the HQ of
the Parachute Regiment in Aldershot,
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but only killed civilians. The backlash from
this, and other elements of their campaign,
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led them to declare a ceasefire soon afterwards.
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From this point forwards, the Provisional
IRA became the majority faction in the
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Republican movement. In July, they enacted
their own reprisal for Bloody Sunday,
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denoting 22 bombs across Belfast in what
became known as Bloody Friday. 9 people
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were killed and around 130 injured
in the space of just 75 minutes.
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In response, the British Army
began Operation Motorman,
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their biggest operation since
Suez. Over 30,000 troops,
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assisted by tanks, went in to clear ‘no-go’
areas controlled by Republican paramilitaries.
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During Operation Motorman British trips would
crashed through these impromptu barriers in
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vehicles like the Humber Pig. For soldiers it was
highly protective, but to civilians it would have
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seemed an oppressive and frightening tool. As far
as trying to catch the people involved largely the
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Republican paramilitaries had got away. However
the British were laying down a marker they were
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prepared to use force to clear these areas and
there was no place they felt they couldn't go.
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On top of this, in an attempt to clamp down on the
violence, the British also sought to introduce a
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method that would get around the intimidation of
jurors and witnesses through what were known as
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diploc courts. Where a sole judge would sit and
would try the accused without any Witnesses and
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without any jury. This was seen as an effective
method to get round any form of intimidation.
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The anger at this latest British intervention
was palpable. And as 1972 came to an end,
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the Provisional IRA were set to attack
the UK mainland for the first time.
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On Thursday 8th of March 1973, Provisional
IRA Bombs exploded at the old Bailey and
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in Whitehall in London. The attacks
claimed one life and injured over 240.
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It was the beginning of a new phase
of the troubles. On May 17th 1974,
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the UVF detonated four car bombs in Dublin
and Monaghan in the Republic of Ireland. 33
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people and one unborn child were killed
in deadliest attack of the Troubles.
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But at the same time, diplomatic
efforts were beginning to emerge.
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A new Northern Irish assembly was founded in 1973,
made up of moderate parties from all sides. They
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approved the Sunningdale Agreement – a power
sharing executive, with involvement from the
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Republic of Ireland. At the time it truly seemed
like the beginnings of peace in the conflict,
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but it was not to be. In May, the Ulster Workers
Council called a general strike and forced the
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Loyalist leader of the executive to resign, soon
after the agreement collapsed. The pattern of
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violence had been set, and extremist on both sides
now held enough sway to derail any peace attempt.
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For the British government, the failure
of Sunningdale left some in doubt over
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Britain’s future in Northern Ireland. But
peace attempts continued non the less.
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Back door negotiations had begun in 1972,
but towards the end of 1974 they began to
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bear fruit. The ban on the IRA’s political
wing Sinn Féin was lifted and plans for a
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cease-fire were agreed. In February 1975,
the PIRA declared an indefinite truce.
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The Provisional IRA hoped for Britain to
actually lay out a sort of map of when they
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intended to withdraw and also at some point
declare a date. This never happened. They all
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suspected and actually were quite correct that
the British government had been using the lapse
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in the violence to basically gather intelligence
and also spread dissent and split them. With this
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in effect the ceasefire pretty much petered out
long before it was officially declared over.
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As violence returned, there were fears on the
Loyalist side that the negotiations were merely a
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precursor a full British withdrawal from Northern
Ireland. Loyalist paramilitaries attempted to draw
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the Provisional IRA away from the ceasefire
and back into the fight. What transpired were
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a series of sectarian tit-for-tat killings.
Loyalists targeting Catholics and, in revenge,
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Republicans targeting Protestants. It was some
of the most sickening violence of the conflict.
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This is a Sterling submachine gun it's a British
Army issue that has been around since the end
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of the Second World War period. It was sold to
armies all around the world and was a reliable
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weapon. This weapon itself was taken by the
Royal Ulster Constabulary in 1980 as we can
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see from the tab it was captured from Loyalist
paramilitaries. Loyalist paramilitaries would
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also have seen the fall of Stormont and direct
rule coming from London and perhaps the future
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of Northern Ireland as they saw it being
in doubt. In this period of early 1970s
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both Loyalist and Republican paramilities
engaged in bloody tit-for-tart struggles,
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revenge attacks, in which very often
civilians were caught up in the middle of
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By 1976 the ceasefire had broken down
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completely, leading to a period of re-assessment
and re-examination on all sides. Political peace
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had failed, and back-channel negotiations had
led to nothing. All sides now settled into new
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strategies which, in the coming years,
would change the shape of the conflict.
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After the failed ceasefire, the Provisional
movement came under new leadership from younger
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members like Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness.
To them it was clear that the British would not
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be leaving Northern Ireland any time soon and so
they set out a new strategy for what they called
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a ‘long war’. Receiving new arms and supplies from
Libya and the USA they planned a war of attrition
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against the British army, centralising command and
using smaller cells known as Active Service Units.
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This is the ArmaLite AR-18 rifle. It's American
made by the ArmaLite company in California.
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Interestingly they were never ever used by any
of the world's armies although they were used
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by police forces. But they were also significantly
in this case used by Provisional IRA and a number
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of these were received in from the United States
and it became a symbol of IRA resistance. Indeed
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Sinn Féin, in their 1981 conference, talked about
taking power with the ArmaLite in one hand in the
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ballot box in the other. And the ArmaLite
is this particular weapon here the AR-18.
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But the British Government was changing
strategy too. Having failed to end the
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violence for coming up for decade,
they now aimed to limit the conflict
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and its effect to Northern Ireland -
launching a three-part strategy termed,
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Ulsteristation, Criminalisation and Normalisation.
The British Army began to hand over control
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to the local forces of the Royal Ulster
Constabulary and Ulster Defence Regiment.
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The new Secretary of State for Northern
Ireland Roy Mason took a much harder line
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with paramilitaries. They started to talk of the
IRA as mafia style gangs headed up by godfathers.
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They reframed them as being criminals rather
than revolutionaries or political activists.
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One of the biggest changes they made was the
end of Special Category Status for prisoners
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convicted of terrorist offenses after the
1st of March 1976. No longer now would
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prisoners be able to fraternize their
own colleagues, wear their own clothes,
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or not take part in prison work as what
Newman would have called an ordinary decent
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criminal. This important decision would have
ramification inside the prisons in years to come.
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The decision led to a series protests by
paramilitary prisoners inside the Maze
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Prison. In 1976 they began the blanket protests,
refusing to wear prison uniforms. Then in 1978,
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they began the dirty protests or no wash protests,
smearing their excrement on the walls of their
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cells. But things escalated further when, in March
of 1980, Special Category Status was ended for all
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prisoners regardless of when their crimes were
committed. Now, Maze prisoners began a hunger
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strike. The first attempt was controversially
called off when it seemed that the British
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government was about to give in. But when they
didn’t, IRA man Bobby Sands lead a second hunger
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strike in March of 1981. A decision which
would change the course of the troubles.
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The 1981 hunger strike had a massive impact on
the public particularly in Northern Ireland,
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but also around the world as well. What
was seen was men being allowed to die
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within the prison and it appeared the British
government was unwilling to do anything to stop
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it. Such was the fame of people like Bobby
Sands at the time the idea was put forward
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to stand him as an MP for the vacant Fermanagh
and South Tyrone and to the surprise of many
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Bobby Sands won the election. This sent a
message really to Sinn Féin that they could
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be more active within the political field
and they could certainly be successful if
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they stood candidates even if they didn't choose
to take the seats that they'd actually won. And
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certainly from 1981 through to an 1984/85
Sinn Féin were relatively successful in
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elections both in Northern Ireland and
also down in the Republic of Ireland.
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When sands died after 66 days without food, he
became a martyr for the Republican cause, 100,000
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people attended his funeral in Belfast. New
members and money poured into the Provisional IRA.
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The strikes eventually came to an end in October,
but their impacts were already being felt.
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In 1982, Sinn Féin finally became a political
force in their own right, winning 5 seats in the
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new Northern Ireland Assembly – though they did
not take their seats. Meanwhile, the republican
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armed struggle continued. In 1984 they mounted
their most audacious attack so far – an attempt
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on the life of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
They set of a 100-pound bomb at the Conservative
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Party Conference in Brighton, killing 5. But
Thatcher and her husband just escaped injury.
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Instead, her biggest worry was Sinn Féin’s
political success. And so, in November 1985,
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the British and Irish governments came together
to sign the Anglo-Irish Agreement – stating that
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there would be no change in the status of
Northern Ireland without the agreement of a
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majority of its citizens. They also gave the
Republic of Ireland’s government an advisory
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role in the north. This was a major blow
to Loyalists and who saw it as a stepping
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stone towards the united Ireland that they
feared. In response Loyalist protests toppled
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the Northern Ireland Assembly, while loyalist
paramilitary violence began to grow once again.
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Apart from the unionist anger towards the
agreement of what it might mean for them it
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also made the IRA stop and take stock of what they
were doing at this point. They saw how Britain had
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now moved from being this immovable colonial force
to a country who actually could be negotiated with
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and who could actually change its position. So
in 1986 they abandoned the long-held tenant of
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abstentionism. From now on any who were elected
to power within Sinn Féin would actually take
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their seats within the Dáil, the southern Irish
Parliament. This is a major break in Republican
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tradition and shows in many ways how far the
Provisional IRA have come since the early 1970s.
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By the end of 1986, the shape of the entire
conflict had changed. Sinn Féin had gone
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from side show to genuine political force,
loyalist paramilitaries were on the rise
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and the British government was attempting to
step away. And yet, after two nearly decades,
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civilians were still bearing the brunt of the
fighting and the streets of Northern Ireland
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were no closer to peace. The question was, how
much more could the Northern Irish people take?
