Stray Bullets

Another unplanned episode, but one generated from a number of questions I've received from listeners asking if I'd planned to discuss Blue Lights Season 2 in much the same way as I did for Season 1. Also, the anecdotes about illicit love trysts in the PSNI was of great interest (which also featured as part of the Blue Lights episodes). To be honest they still occur and, as such, follow similar paths (maybe not so much with GCHQ involvement, though!) as I've previously alluded to.

However, I recalled some love in the RUC and, well ... hence the 'love squad'  

    

Click here if you’d like to send me a comment or question. Thank you.

Support the show

Médecins Sans Frontières

Unicef

PEN International

Given the contentious nature of the subject topic discussed in this episode I've added some caveats which I've outlined at the beginning. I'd just have to reiterate that the episode just reflects my own personal observations plus awareness of incidents, and remain my own interpretations of such.

Having said that, I feel this subject will inevitably run into another episode. It's much too deep a topic to bottom out in under an hour. 

Before I begin work on Part II then if there's anything you think I can answer - or even clarify or expand on from this episode - just click on the link below, or drop me a line on Twitter.

Given the state of my mind at the moment I think there may be some thoughts I've left out, and / or incidents I've forgot to mention. If so, I'll rectify this in Part II.

As ever, thank you very much for your time and continued support for this podcast.      

Click here if you’d like to send me a comment or question. Thank you.

Support the show

Médecins Sans Frontières

Unicef

PEN International

Another 'impromptu' episode! This time I'll be (hurriedly, sorry time waits ... ) discussing the political rants following Armagh GAA winning the All-Ireland title on Sunday 28th July 2024. Moreso, because a PSNI Community Policing Officer joined in with his community celebrating in Camlough (I used to just be flown over it and dropped off nearby for foot patrols) by proudly flying the Armagh GAA flag from his livered vehicle.

As ever, in Northern Ireland this divided sections of the community. As I said - or wrote - somewhere(?) I've felt for sometime now that instances like this are as if unionism believes that nationalism has taken its (policing) toy off it and wont give it back. Maybe I'm being too harsh? It works both ways, of course. It always has.

Policing in Northern Ireland is unable to untether itself from political moorings partly because of our history and, partly, because that is the way of the world and 'civilisation'. This conundrum is - and never was - the sole possession of Northern Ireland.

Anyway, I felt it important to conclude the episode by deferring to extracts from an interview by Peadar Heffron who suffered traumatic amputations and injuries following the placement of a UCBT under his private vehicle in 2010.

You can read the interview here.     

And you can view the Camlough footage here   

 

Click here if you’d like to send me a comment or question. Thank you.

Support the show

Médecins Sans Frontières

Unicef

PEN International

In this episode I attempt to conclude my thoughts on the aspects of Forgiveness and Recrimination in Northern Ireland's post-Troubles' society. In saying that, I'll add the caveat that I'll most likely be revisiting nuances of such topics threaded through future episodes.

For the time being I'm looking at how we memorialise the past in terms of 'isolating' sacred spaces from the eyes of the 'other', along with other related aspects, and how this may hamper reconciliation.

Some works cited:

Michael Ignatieff, The Liberal Imagination: A Defence, Toronto Star, 1998

Jenny Edkins, The Rush to Memory and the Rhetoric of War, Journal of Political and Military Sociology 31, 2003     

_____________


“I know from experience that the isolation of those who try to forget the past is as terrible as the isolation of those for whom the past is an obsession; I’ve learned that the question is never whether or not to forget, that this is a false dichotomy; the only question [...] is how to remember the past without repeating it.”

Édouard Louis, Histoire de la violence

Click here if you’d like to send me a comment or question. Thank you.

Support the show

Médecins Sans Frontières

Unicef

PEN International

Will there be a time when we, in Northern Ireland, see our seemingly parallel divergent histories cross? Our opposing narratives blend with commonality. As a society still raw from sectarian and political conflict many are trying to step away from hate, but there are still those who fear any admission of culpability will render them vulnerable.

In this episode I'll be talking about such and more. If there's a way, or even the beginnings of an answer, that will lead us towards healing and away from hate.

Work cited:

Biggar, N. (2008) Divided Past: Shared Future: Essays on Churches addressing the legacy of the Troubles, Belfast: Centre for Contemporary Christianity in Ireland.         

Click here if you’d like to send me a comment or question. Thank you.

Support the show

Médecins Sans Frontières

Unicef

PEN International

Just a bolt-on tale I omitted to include in the previous episode: 'Rattlebag'.

Click here if you’d like to send me a comment or question. Thank you.

Support the show

Médecins Sans Frontières

Unicef

PEN International

This episode is, in itself, an interlude before I continue my theme of reconciliation and recrimination. I just needed a breather of sorts and to realign my thoughts, which had been threatening to scatter.

Just some (brief) ruminations herein on a few innocuous memories from my time in both the Royal Ulster Constabulary and PSNI. 

Many thanks to those who've sent me some questions, clarifications as well as very kind feedback. A lot of interest in my Blue Lights themed episodes, plus some requests for the same on Season Two.     

Click here if you’d like to send me a comment or question. Thank you.

Support the show

Médecins Sans Frontières

Unicef

PEN International

In this episode I'll be continuing to look at the aspect of Forgiveness and Recrimination which I began in the episode, 'I Bear No Grudge'. Given the amount of material I've gathered to date, I sense that the topic will continue on for several more episodes.

In this episode I employ two poems by John Hewitt: 'The Iron Circle' and 'The Bloody Brae' in the hope that they may assist in illuminating the complex nature of  forgiveness in the context of sectarianism,  attendant savagery and subsequent trauma.

Hewitt wrote 'The Bloody Brae' in 1936. It 'lay around until 1953, when [Hewitt] suddenly came on it [...]'. 

Both 'The Iron Circle' and 'The Bloody Brae' are taken from:

The Collected Poems of John Hewitt, edited by Frank Ormsby, The Blackstaff Press, Belfast, 1991.

A partial glossary for The Bloody Brae:

'boording'     entering into conversation
'guddling'      catching [fish] by hand
'brae'               rising ground 
'sheugh'         ditch
'yowe'             ewe        

The following link may be of cursory interest:

‘What about Islandmagee?’ Another version of the 1641 rebellion.
https://www.historyireland.com/what-about-islandmagee-another-version-of-the-1641-rebellion/

Click here if you’d like to send me a comment or question. Thank you.

Support the show

Médecins Sans Frontières

Unicef

PEN International

I'd just recorded Part II of my consideration of Forgiveness and Recrimination in a post-conflict Northern Ireland when my SSD gave up the ghost. On retrospect it may have been a blessing in disguise as I wasn't completely happy with the experimental format of the episode, besides I'd only noticed several dropouts in the recording just as I was completing it which would've meant rerecording it!

So, I'm going to revise the format and presentation of Part II. It'll also give me a chance to do a bit more research too. Therefore, Part II will follow this episode.

In terms of this  episode, well it sort of ran away with itself, or my mind unspooled slightly (probably both are apt!). I was just reminded - by what or who I don't recall, it may even have been one of my many so called 'hallucinations' (I go along with my psychiatrist on that terminology, but my 'hallucinations' have substance. Still, agreeing with the professionals sometimes makes for an easier road. 

Anyway, this episode is a bit scattergun. I wanted to consider my juxtaposition  - as a RUC officer - to that of a member of PIRA whom I had stopped sometime after PIRA's second ceasefire, and possibly closer to the Good Friday Agreement. It's a quite mundane tale, but again, I feel.  highlights the multiplicity demanded by the (RUC) job.

I promise 'normal service' will be resumed next episode as my new laptop is all whistles and bells, plus I flew through this recording in a fraction of the time it used to take me on my now defunct one - I don't have to watch the recording software hang for ages and then crash either!

Once again, many thanks for sticking with me through these podcasts, or even just listening in once or twice before deciding it's not for you.  

Click here if you’d like to send me a comment or question. Thank you.

Support the show

Médecins Sans Frontières

Unicef

PEN International

This episode is Part One of Two in which I look at two atrocities, one in 1972 and one in 1987, through the words of two fathers who both experienced the murder of one of their children. Ultimately, this episode will, I hope, help me explore the aspect of 'forgiveness' in the context of conflict, specifically the Troubles. 

In Part Two (the concluding episode) I would hope to be freer to voice my thoughts - not only on the aspect of 'forgiveness', but also on that of the seeking of an apology, of sorts, as well as repentance from the Provisional IRA. 

In Part One I have used extracts from the following books:

• On The Waterfront, Parker, Joseph D., The Pentland Press, 2000
• Lost Lives. McKittrick, David, et al, Mainstream Publishing 2004

Click here if you’d like to send me a comment or question. Thank you.

Support the show

Médecins Sans Frontières

Unicef

PEN International