Para's and bl**dy sunday

Enterprise_1701C wrote: »

The army were there to help. In the meantime the ones that thought it was fun to kill civilians in bomb blasts like Eniskillen and aim at military parades such as Hyde Park and Regents Park are hailed as heros by people such as Corbyn.

The terrorists should be punished, the army praised.

In 1973 NI had their border poll and a massive majority of those that voted wanted to remain in the UK. Unfortunately those that disagreed had bombs etc. They were, and still are, trying to force the majority to do as the minority want. Sound familiar?

Relatives of four soldiers murdered by an IRA bomb in Hyde Park in 1982 are seeking damages from the main suspect.

The four members of the Royal Household Cavalry were killed as they rode to the Changing of the Guard ceremony in Whitehall on 20 July 1982.

A criminal case against John Downey, who denied four counts of murder, collapsed in controversial circumstances in 2014.

The civil action is taking place in London and is due to last three days.

It emerged that, by mistake, Mr Downey had received an assurance from the government that he was not wanted in connection with any offence.

The so-called "On-the-Run" letters were issued as part of the Northern Ireland peace agreement in 1998.

I was lucky that the nearest I got to the kind of situation those soldiers were exposed to was when I was faced with "hostile" crowds was during a week of Pre NI training during a cold January in sunny Thetford.


Even though they were simulated exercises & I knew no-one really wanted to kill me I'm not ashamed to admit that it got my adrenaline going (almost the brown variety at times!..... the guys playing the "Civ Pop" really did throw themselves into their roles very enthusiastically).


I cant even imagine experiencing the kind of stress that some soldiers went through on a regular basis during a 6 month tour.


Probably surprising (and a testament to the professionalism of all the young lads/lassies that served in NI) that a similar events to that Sunday didn't escalate in a similar fashion.