From Conflict To Respect

The conflict in Northern Ireland is now over and a win for everybody kind of resolution from the Troubles has created a new framework of hope and understanding for the people of Northern Ireland . Discrimination is a thing of the past and thugs are in short demand .
I was born in Belfast and grew up in Ardoyne a place of conflict . I saw injustice lived with an absence of the accountability for it . But when you witness any accident you soon realize that nothing you could do or say could have changed the way things went . I like to think that the troubles was one of those accidents in life that claimed the lives of thousands of innocent people .
A combination of hatred fuelled by fear contributed to the formation of paramilitaries with their own death squads . Representing those responsible for many innocent lives being lost are many other people who clothed themselves in uniforms worn by the British army forces, the B specials or police reserves , the Royal Ulster Constabulary , the Ulster Defence Regiment and outside gangs and groups unknown .
I would like to share with you my own personal story of a boy growing up in the conflict of a troubled city .

The troubles began late on , in the 1960's when civil rights marches had issued a statement by the Catholic minority to the Protestant majority who had control of Government and the alliance that Catholics wanted equal rights in the province . They asked for better housing , education and employment .
This was the beginning of the civil rights movement in Northern Ireland and individuals emerged from the back streets of the province to confront those who would not budge an inch from this old and unfair system . Embrangled by the chains lf their office politicians refused to see the point being mad and they would not agree to equal rights for Catholics in the province . I still remember new years day 1969 and a march across Derry was made by the peoples democracy to show their solidarity against the inequalities of an unfair system . The march was a peaceful way of showing discontentment with the those in power who refused to change and refused to help those who were living in poverty in tiny tenement houses around the province . The march was stopped at Burntollet Bridge by the Police who violently attacked those at the forefront of the parade . This created feelings of anger towards an already despised system and by the end of April that year bombing began .
Terence O'Neil resigned and was replaced by his cousin Major Chichester Clark . Violence erupted all over Northern Ireland and each day in my village rioting convulsed the little streets that surrounded my home . The sounds of exploding gelignite and gunfire had replaced the sounds of children singing and playing in the streets . The police and police reserves could not cope and opened fire on innocent people through the front windows of their homes .
In Derry the Battle of the Bogside began on 14th August and other areas around the province were following that example . In Belfast Protestants surged down the little streets between the Shankill and the Falls throwing petrol bombs into houses as they went . The police who were in conflict with the Catholic population fired their browning sub-machine guns bring down any one who stood in their way , On the 14th of August 15 people were killed , 12 factories were destroyed and over 100 houses wrecked . The homes around me burned to the ground and I was taken away with my Mother and sisters to a place of safety until the following day when the British troops arrived late in the afternoon . Violence had erupted everywhere . I watched my village burn and its people flee for safety .
The IRA who had long been disbanded reformed to defend their people in the Catholic areas of the province . On the 9th August 1971 Brian Faulkner the Prime Minister decided to activate the Special Powers Act and impose internment in around Northern Ireland . By dawn the nest morning 342 men had been seized and placed in custody . Internment was entirely one sided and no protestant or loyalist member of the province had been arrested . In my village men and boys over the age of 16 were dragged from their beds and beaten with batons and rifles butts then thrown into the back of armoured cars and taken away and locked up in a prison without any trial .
The day after internment was introduced 11 people were killed and in my village of Ardoyne 240 houses were destroyed by fire . I remember that night well as the flames leapt all around my family and I who stood their helpless to stop the madness . It was like some monster had been set free to roam the streets of the place we loved .
By the end of August 35 deaths and over 100 explosions had been seen . Tens of thousands of people were forced from their homes , many of them squatting in community halls and schools . The echoes of opposition from people began to rally from across the border in the republic of Ireland .
On January 1972 an anti-interment march took place in Derry through the Creggan Estate . The British Army took up a position directly in front of the parade and men from the first Battalion Parachute Regiment opened fire killing 14 men , seven of them were under19 years of age .All of them Catholics .Three days later 30,000 people gathered in Dublin and burned down the British Embassy . Bloody Sunday as it was known only heightened tensions between Catholics and Protestants who could no longer live together in peace . I remember coming home from school taunted by the shouts of 14 nil by elated Protestant school at the deaths of those innocent men in Derry
Power sharing between Loyalists and Nationalists began in 1972 that ended in 1974 with a loyalist strike in May . This new method of Governance ended abruptly .
A period of protest from internees in prisons started . From 1976 to the end of the hunger strikes in 1981 .republican prisoners started a series of protests in an effort to be classified as political prisoners . This demand for political status was denied . During the 217 days of the hunger strikes ten republicans prisoners had died and outside the prison 61 people were killed in the violence that had erupted on the street .
During the next chapter of the troubles Northern Ireland became a slaughter house with thousands more losing their lives in the troubles .
From 1985 when the Anglo-Irish agreement was made to 1998 when the Good Friday Agreement was made politicians and paramilitaries considered an end to the troubles . Some gains were made on both sides on this rocky road to peace .
Thank God now it's over and its time to put the pieces together again . The people of Northern Ireland have to put it all behind them now. Its time to pave the way towards a better future and all the ghosts of yesterday must never be allowed to haunt the streets ever again . Its time to put them all to rest .
A new generation of people have seen hope for the first time emerge and in recent years Belfast has undergone a metamorphosis with unprecedented investment in tourism and commerce . Smart money had built new infrastructures that include a face lift to the city center and business district . New conference centers , new devilments , extended promises and facilities have put a new spirit of optimism in Belfast . The people of Northern Ireland are now starting to feel a sense of pride about their province and tourists have flocked to explore this new destination on their travel maps .
Northern Ireland today is vibrant and new initiatives are continually being met Justice and equality are now a reality and progress is being made between the Loyalist forces and Nationalist Groups .
In 2006 the IRA officially declared that its campaigned of violence was over and they destroyed their all their weapons . Protestant paramilitaries are looking at following the example of their enemy . There is no more sound of bombs exploding of gunfire for the troubles have finished and if you walk around Northern Ireland you will hear the children singing and playing on the streets that they call home once again .

By Paul McCann