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This amateur footage was captured in the aftermath
of one of the most shocking events of the
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troubles.
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On 8 November 1987 a bomb at a Remembrance
Sunday ceremony in the town of Enniskillen.
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The bomb had been planted by the Provisional
IRA, who later stated their target was the
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British Military.
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The devastating scenes from the attack led
to widespread condemnation and a backlash
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towards the IRA and Sinn Fein.
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For nearly twenty years, the citizens of Northern
Ireland had lived through the Troubles.
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Many had been born into the conflict, and
had never known anything else.
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Yet by the early 1990s, it appeared that peace
was finally within reach.
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So what was it like to live through this conflict,
and how did the two sides finally come together
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to negotiate a solution?
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Since the early violence of the Troubles,
barriers had been erected to divide the republican
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and loyalist communities.
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The first barriers went up in Belfast on September
10th, 1969, and were put up by the British
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Army's Royal Engineers.
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At this stage they were wooden pickets with
rows of barbed wire, and they were there to
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separate the communities of the Falls Road
and the Shankill.
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However, as the Troubles progressed, rather
than reducing the number of barriers, they
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increased, particularly in Belfast, where
the area between the Shankill and Falls Road
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increased to huge steel walls that are here
to this day.
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The peace walls were probably largely welcomed
by people at the time owing to the fact of
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security and fear of the other community.
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And even today, even though the walls have
start to come down in stages in many communities,
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people don't yet feel confident enough for
these barriers to be removed.
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In 1963-65, I was going out with my future
wife.
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I lived in the West of Belfast and she lived
in the extreme east of Belfast.
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Now, I used to virtually every night walk
that 7 miles.
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So I would walk through the Newton’s Park
Road, which is a highly protestant area; through
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the Markets area, and the Short Strand area
and the Markets area are both Catholic, seven
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miles right through the centre of the city.
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And I walked that every night, with no fear
whatsoever and no consequences.
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Now, in the 1980s had I done that, I wouldn’t
have lived for more than a week, you know.
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Because there were so many murders in that
Short Strand, Markets, Newton’s Park area,
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that one of the groups would have picked me
up.
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But it wasn’t just walls that segregated
communities.
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Growing up in Northern Ireland often meant
interacting almost exclusively with people
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from the same background and faith.
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By the late 1990s, around 92% of Northern
Ireland’s public homes were segregated by
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religion.
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Marriages between Protestants and Catholics
were highly unusual.
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In 1970, over 95% of children in Northern
Ireland attended single-faith schools.
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But from early on in the Troubles, there were
movements campaigning for integration and
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peace.
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The Community of Peace People led marches
throughout the 1970s.
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But the issue of segregation proved difficult
to change – even today, the majority of
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schools are still segregated by faith.
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In the late 1980s, Northern Ireland was still
being governed by Direct Rule from Westminster.
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The NI Assembly had been closed in 1986 and
no satisfactory solution could be agreed to
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reinstate a devolved government.
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Northern Ireland was as polarised as it had
ever been.
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The Anglo-Irish Agreement had sparked a series
of assaults from loyalists against Catholic
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houses and RUC officers.
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IRA bombings had also increased in reaction
to this.
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Bomb scares had become a regular occurrence
for Northern Irish citizens, especially in
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Belfast and Derry/Londonderry.
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Behind me is a Wheelbarrow.
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Its bomb disposal robot used by the British
Army from the early 1970s to diffuse certain
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types of devices.
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Sadly for the people of Northern Ireland,
bomb scares were a common occurrence.
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Often any object that looked remotely suspicious
had to be reported.
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Many of the devices planted were aimed at
the business districts of cities and towns,
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shops and also military targets as well.
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So the threat was very real for the civilian
population as invariably they were the ones
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who would be caught in any blasts.
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If you identify a bomb or find a suspicious
package, what do you do?
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Even at a moment like this, try to be observant.
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If you do find a bomb of any kind, follow
this procedure.
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Although little things weren't.
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It was commonplace just to walk out of your
house in the morning and have an armed British
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soldier.
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Your people.
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I remember that question a lot.
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And that was every day.
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Going shopping or putting your handbag up?
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Going through checkpoints which just popped
up anywhere.
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Other little things were, it was commonplace
just to walk out of your house in the morning
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and have an armed British soldier at your
gatepost.
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I remember not questioning that, and that
was every day.
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Going shopping, opening your handbag up.
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Going through checkpoints, which just popped
up anywhere.
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Bombs scares were commonplace.
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And again, none of that…
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it was just normal.
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It was my normal.
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That's only after I left and all this has
stopped that, I think, how do people live
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like that?
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The 1980s had seen an increase in violence
and a series of tit-for-tat bombings.
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Both sides were smuggling weapons into Northern
Ireland to support their armed campaigns.
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The IRA had been importing arms from the US,
Libya and elsewhere since the early 1970s,
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and in the mid-1980s, the loyalist paramilitary
groups collaborated to obtain arms from abroad.
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In late 1987, a large shipment of arms was
smuggled into Belfast from Lebanon, intended
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for the UDA, UVF and the Ulster Resistance.
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But the movement towards politics was also
developing…
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The Remembrance Sunday bombing in November
1987 marked a turning point in the Troubles.
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The IRA and Sinn Fein were straddled between
a political agenda and acts of terrorism,
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and their senior members were aware of how
much attacks like this could damage their
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cause.
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Gerry Adams - the leader of Sinn Fein - said
that the Ennisikillen bombing was a mistake
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that they couldn't afford to repeat.
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Just two months later, Gerry Adams met in
secret with John Hume, leader of the Social
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Democratic and Labour Party.
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The talks between Gerry Adams and John Hume
are highly significant.
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They began speaking in secret in early 1988.
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Initially the talks come to nothing, but Adams
and Hume build up a trust and over the next
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few years continue to meet in secret.
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But it's not only them.
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The British government and the Irish government
are also involved in this.
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This may be secret from the population, but
it's well known within the Irish and British
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governments.
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And it's not until April 1993 when purely
by accident, Gerry Adams is seen going into
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John Hume’s house in Derry, that the public
realizes that something is going on.
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Both sides were keen for peace, and open to
the idea of the wider pan-Irish alliance.
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Yet the armed struggle continued.
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Gerry Adams says that the British government
really understands the force of argument,
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but it understands the argument of force.
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And also the armed struggle isn't purely about
defence.
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It sets a political agenda.
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In 1988, three events took place that would
see the violence descending out of control
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and change the course of the conflict.
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In March, three members an IRA act of service
unit were shot by the SAS in Gibraltar, where
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they were seen or thought to be seen to be
planting a bomb.
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However, as it turned out, they were unarmed
and there was no bomb, although the bomb making
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materials were found in a car in Spain a few
days later.
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At the funerals of these three IRA volunteers
at Milton Cemetery in West Belfast, another
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event happened.
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Michael Stone, a loyalist gunmen attacked
the funeral with grenades and a handgun.
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Three people were killed in this incident.
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It was also caught on TV.
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So these images went around the world.
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A week later at the funeral of one of the
people shot another, an IRA who was actually
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killed by Michael Stone, for reasons that
are still uncertain, two British army corporals
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drove into the funeral cortege near Andersonstown
Road in West Belfast.
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The mourners at the funeral, believing another
Michael Stone attack, attacked the car.
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One of them came out of the car and fired
a pistol in the air.
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The two men were dragged out, beaten and taken
to a piece of waste ground and shot dead.
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Again, this was captured with the world's
press.
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At this point, the violence seems to be spiralling
out of control.
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And with this, the talks between the British
government, the Irish government, Sinn Fein
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and the SDLP seem to be more important than
ever.
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In the early 1990s, a series of bombs were
detonated targeting British Army bases, there
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were more bombings in London, in Belfast and
across Northern Ireland.
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In 1993, the Warrington bomb attacks in Cheshire
kill two children and wound 56.
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All sides recognised that this level of violence
was not sustainable and public weariness of
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the conflict helps push forward the peace
talks.
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As we move into 1994, there are signs of a
ceasefire emerging.
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Although the violence continues, the IRA have
intimated that they are keen to look at terms
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of talks.
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A document is introduced that goes by the
initialization of TUAS which Republicans claim
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stands for Totally Unarmed Struggle, but in
reality really stands for tactical use of
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armed struggle because armed struggle has
not going away.
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But the need for political talks continues
on.
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In August 1994, a deal was finally struck.
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The PIRA announced a cessation of all military
operations.
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Unionists and the British Government remained
sceptical at the announcement, but Gerry Adams
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pronounced it a victory, saying the struggle
was into a new phase.
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But the ceasefire was conditional on political
progress.
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In October 1994, the Combined Loyalist Military
Command announced its own ceasefire.
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Likewise, their statement asserted that the
permanence of the ceasefire was dependant
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on the continued cessation of republican violence.
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The Irish Prime Minister, Albert Reynolds
stated, "This decision effectively signifies
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the end of twenty-five years of violence,
and the closure of a tragic chapter in our
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history".
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In 1995, the death toll dropped to a record
low since the Troubles began in 1969, with
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nine people killed that year.
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The all-party peace talks resumed and though
a resolution felt to be close, a stumbling
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block was hit.
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John Major who became British Prime Minister
in 1990 took steps that previous Prime Ministers
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had not, which is to prioritize peace in Northern
Ireland.
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This is actually a bit of a risk for him because
he has a very slim majority in parliament
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and relies on Ulster Unionist Party votes.
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However, the major sticking point for the
British Government something called the pre-decommissioning
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of IRA arms.
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They insisted Sinn Fein could only take part
in the talks if the IRA agreed to decommission
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their weaponry.
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This, of course, was something the IRA would
never do.
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Armed struggle was, in a sense, the main trump
card.
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Then, on 9 February 1996 – 17 months after
the start of the ceasefire – a lorry bomb
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was detonated in the Isle of Dogs in London.
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Two people were killed, dozens were injured
and millions of pounds worth of damage was
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done.
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The IRA claimed responsibility, stating their
anger at the direction of the peace talks
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with Sinn Fein being side-lined from negotiations.
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Civilians were once again paying the price
for the political stalemate.
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Paramilitary groups and the IRA refused to
give up their arms, and over the next few
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years, hundreds more would suffer.
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The public were desperate for an end to the
violence, but the segregation that marked
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the cities of Northern Ireland had deep roots.
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How would peace in Northern Ireland finally
be reached?
