Speaker 1: Oh, beat force. If it doesn't work, you're just not
Speaker 1: using enough. You're listening to Software Up Radio, Special Operations,
Speaker 1: military news and straight talk with the guys and the community.
Speaker 1: Welcome to software a radio on time and on target.
Speaker 1: This week it's Big Field campaign again from across the Bonds,
Speaker 1: talking to you from London this time, and we've got
Speaker 1: some topics this week for you. I'm going to cover
Speaker 1: one of my dogs, hunting Dog this week and some
Speaker 1: of you might be surprised by it's by his background
Speaker 1: and actually what it was bread forth, so that's comite.
Speaker 1: It's gonna be interesting, one of the dogs. So last,
Speaker 1: we've obviously got the UK elections, which you're going on
Speaker 1: right now, and i'd like to start a new thing
Speaker 1: with you and give you a broad brush of what
Speaker 1: we used to call the Troubles or Operation Banner, which
Speaker 1: was the operation in Northern Ireland which went on for
Speaker 1: quite some time. But we'll touch all that and a
Speaker 1: bit as start them, very very briefly with the elections.
Speaker 1: I know I've spoke a lot about the elections in
Speaker 1: the last few weeks, but it's obviously it's going on now.
Speaker 1: It affects all of us in the UK, and it
Speaker 1: could affect things like trade relations, etcetera with the US.
Speaker 1: So you're not completely out of the water by the
Speaker 1: decisions that people make in this country. How's it going
Speaker 1: over here? While there are only as I've alluded to
Speaker 1: before on my live show on Software's Facebook page, there
Speaker 1: are only two parties here. You're either Conservative or your Labor.
Speaker 1: In my opinion, anybody else casting a vote anywhere else
Speaker 1: whatsoever is just wasting their vote. You're not going to
Speaker 1: make a difference to the outcomedy election. You really are, Okay.
Speaker 1: So there are various other parties, the Liberal Democrats, the
Speaker 1: Brexit Party, it's party out party, other party, but understand
Speaker 1: any chance of winning anything, you need to be voting
Speaker 1: for Conservative or Labor, both who claimed to represent the
Speaker 1: working man, although Labor more so, and both parties of
Speaker 1: which promise all sorts of different things but in reality
Speaker 1: failed to deliver absolutely anything. As you can tell, I'm
Speaker 1: not I'm not massively into my politics. I have actually
Speaker 1: I've actually been on Sky News for a few politics shows,
Speaker 1: but it's not something I enjoy. Politics nowadays, they never
Speaker 1: seem that we had to get it together for the
Speaker 1: good and benefit of everybody in the country. There's too
Speaker 1: much rowing, there's too much arguing, there's too much back
Speaker 1: biting and points scoring, and it really is a difficult
Speaker 1: thing that to to unravel this year. However, in particular,
Speaker 1: there is a there is a connotation to this, to
Speaker 1: this year's election in particular whereby I think if the
Speaker 1: Labor Party get in, it is an absolute snub on
Speaker 1: our armed forces and our veterans community, because the current
Speaker 1: Labor leader has failed repeatedly to denounce his support for
Speaker 1: various terrorist organizations around the planet. You can't deny that
Speaker 1: these relationships have gone on. He can't deny that he's
Speaker 1: forged quite happy friendships with the Irish Republican Army, with
Speaker 1: Hammas and various other groups. It's there to be seen,
Speaker 1: and he won't deny it. He just won't denounce their
Speaker 1: activities and whatever. He can't do that. There's a feeling
Speaker 1: within the community, how could we ever have somebody in
Speaker 1: charge of us who actually represents the very people we've
Speaker 1: put our boots on and gone gone up against. So
Speaker 1: it's a very very difficult on this election because there
Speaker 1: are too many people voting who don't really understand the
Speaker 1: problems and they only see what they're promised by these people.
Speaker 1: And obviously Jeremy Corbyn from the Labor Party promises universities,
Speaker 1: the world promises students, the world promises old people, the
Speaker 1: world promises nurses and all the rest of them. The world.
Speaker 1: Can they deliver now? I doubt it. Will they deliver,
Speaker 1: definitely not. But what they will do if they get
Speaker 1: in power is he in particular, it has already been
Speaker 1: cited by M I five and I M I six
Speaker 1: as not fit for security clearance in this country. Yet
Speaker 1: he can end up as the Prime minister. It's an
Speaker 1: absolute joke. So I should be watching the elections very
Speaker 1: carefully to see how it unfolds, and I shall be
Speaker 1: hand on heart praying that the Labor Parties do not win.
Speaker 1: At this day, st is your the campaign while Jeremy
Speaker 1: Corbyn is still in charge of their party, because I
Speaker 1: don't believe he has the interests of the country or
Speaker 1: the majority of people who are British in his own interests.
Speaker 1: He's on his own agenda. He's definitely you know, he's
Speaker 1: definitely wants sponsor socialism and all that sort of stuff.
Speaker 1: He just isn't what I would say the others aren't.
Speaker 1: I gotta tell you, right, So you look at you
Speaker 1: look at Boris Johnson. You know, people call him a
Speaker 1: bumbling before and all the rest of the stuff, But
Speaker 1: at the two of them, I'm afraid for me, he's
Speaker 1: more likely to do good for this country. So, like
Speaker 1: I said, we'll just keep what are now. Things pan
Speaker 1: out however they pan out, although you know, with Brexit,
Speaker 1: I mean, we voted to leave the European Union and
Speaker 1: it still hasn't happened yet, so who knows how the
Speaker 1: elections are going to end? Are we even a democratic
Speaker 1: state in the UK anymore? Or do we just do
Speaker 1: what we're told? Or do we just keep voting until
Speaker 1: we get the answer that the minimum people want rather
Speaker 1: than what the majority want. Is that the way it is,
Speaker 1: because that's the way it looks to me, it really does.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to get all political on you, but
Speaker 1: let's say politics, it's a very very sad state of
Speaker 1: affairs nowadays in the UK, as it is around the
Speaker 1: rest of the world. And although you know you'd like
Speaker 1: to you ain't never ever going to keep everybody happy,
Speaker 1: but you would like to think you at least you
Speaker 1: at least managers to keep you keep your country in
Speaker 1: a in a rarely fairly happy state. But the politics. Okay, So,
Speaker 1: as I promised, I'm gonna do the dogs last I think.
Speaker 1: But what I want to talk to you about, first
Speaker 1: of all, last time on the subject of the Irish
Speaker 1: Republican Army, it's the troubles. Quite thought like broad brush
Speaker 1: the troubles. While it was more than trouble, it was
Speaker 1: it was over three decades worth of trouble. That's more
Speaker 1: than trouble to me. It was known as Operation Banner,
Speaker 1: And I'm going to give you a little bit of
Speaker 1: background information as to how things unfolded, and then a
Speaker 1: little bit of information on how the whole thing started,
Speaker 1: because it isn't something that just started in the sixties,
Speaker 1: and it's something that goes way back to the sixteen hundreds,
Speaker 1: and probably some would argue before that as well. So
Speaker 1: there's been bad blood in Ireland for well past anybody
Speaker 1: here can can remember. It really has been a it
Speaker 1: really has been an uphill struggle for the people of
Speaker 1: Ireland for years and years and years. And so Operation
Speaker 1: Banner came into force and the forteenth of August nineteen
Speaker 1: six and went on until the thirty one July two
Speaker 1: thousand and seven. It was the largest deployment continually of
Speaker 1: British troops in the history of the British Army. How
Speaker 1: did it all begin there? Well, of the recent troubles,
Speaker 1: we can we can date it back to nineteen and
Speaker 1: basically what was happening the Catholic national nationalists. We're a
Speaker 1: minority and they were trying. They were they were rallying
Speaker 1: to end what they saw as discrimination against them by
Speaker 1: the Union or Protestants who had most of the seats
Speaker 1: within the government and the police. They felt crushed. Obviously
Speaker 1: Northern Ireland was you know, was and is British. Okay,
Speaker 1: it's it's it's our corner of that island. With the
Speaker 1: Catholics nationalists wishing for a United Island. They didn't they
Speaker 1: didn't want nothing to do with the Crown. They don't
Speaker 1: want nothing to do with the British They wanted a
Speaker 1: United Island. Okay. As a minority, they were claiming to
Speaker 1: be discriminated against against the Unions who did want to
Speaker 1: remain under the control of the Crown. Okay. So that's
Speaker 1: what you've basically got. That's how it was teed up Now,
Speaker 1: originally the British soldiers were deployed because it got to
Speaker 1: such a stage where whilst the Catholics were demonstrating, the
Speaker 1: violence erupted. It was deemed that and there was a
Speaker 1: couple of incidents where where the police were heavy handed
Speaker 1: and people were hurt, and so the British Army went
Speaker 1: over there as an intermediary force, as a go between,
Speaker 1: as a stand between the two two communities, which is
Speaker 1: a very very difficult and thankless task in any capacity
Speaker 1: to do that sort of thing, especially when you're coming
Speaker 1: from your being sent by the crown to stand up
Speaker 1: for both sides. It's a very thankless task. And indeed,
Speaker 1: as as as I've just alluded to, immediately they were
Speaker 1: welcomed by the Catholic nationalist people because they were a
Speaker 1: barrier between them and all this trouble that was going
Speaker 1: on between between the two communities. Okay, so they were
Speaker 1: seen as wow, thanks, thanks, you've come, you've saved us. Okay.
Speaker 1: But it's said it didn't last very long, that's what
Speaker 1: they call the honeymoon period. Didn't last for long at all.
Speaker 1: It's soon sort of like spilled over with a couple
Speaker 1: of incidents which I'm going to go into in more
Speaker 1: detailed later on. It's soon spilled over that the Catholics
Speaker 1: rose up against the British Army, who then in turn
Speaker 1: dug in against them while still trying to provide this
Speaker 1: barrier between the Unionists and the Theist It was an
Speaker 1: insane position, that being for the British Army, to be honest,
Speaker 1: because they did have a duty of care to look
Speaker 1: after everybody, but one part of the community was actually fighting, bombing, shooting, bricking,
Speaker 1: spitting on all this stuff, you know, repeatedly attacking the
Speaker 1: British forces. Okay, so it's very difficult to take a
Speaker 1: neutral stance when you're actually physically being attacked by one
Speaker 1: side of the community. Now there's obviously escalated into the
Speaker 1: full blown troubles, and over a period of years it
Speaker 1: went on and on and on. Let's let's have a
Speaker 1: look before I go any further with this, let's have
Speaker 1: a look at the actual background in terms of history.
Speaker 1: All right, in terms of actual history, one of the
Speaker 1: first ones we go back to is right back in
Speaker 1: the sixteen hundreds, right back in sixteen sixteen o nine,
Speaker 1: and well, I don't even know if America was a
Speaker 1: country in the sixteen o nine. At sixteen o nine,
Speaker 1: that's a long time ago, all right, But this is
Speaker 1: where this stuff's can come back to it. In sixteen
Speaker 1: o nine, Scottish and English settlers moved over and they
Speaker 1: were called planters. Now they were called planters, and they
Speaker 1: moved into land which was relinquished by landowners who had
Speaker 1: no one to leave the land too. So they basically
Speaker 1: occupied space which was going to rack and ruins. So
Speaker 1: these settlers from the UK, all right, the planters came
Speaker 1: over and occupied lands that had no ownership right and
Speaker 1: they were given this land by the by the people
Speaker 1: of Ireland. They would said, you know, you have this land,
Speaker 1: we have no one to is just going to go
Speaker 1: to waste. You have this land, you come and live it, okay.
Speaker 1: So initially they were welcome as guests. Now this is
Speaker 1: where displacement of people is always ambiguous, because after a
Speaker 1: small period of time, these people, the plant has their presence,
Speaker 1: grew stronger and stronger and stronger, and before you know it,
Speaker 1: they're moving into disputed territory. They're taking over land that
Speaker 1: they shouldn't be taken over. They're taking over land that
Speaker 1: nobody should has got any claim to. So they're just
Speaker 1: getting bigger and bigger. And in a couple of the counties,
Speaker 1: particularly Antrim and down this started to result in conflict
Speaker 1: between the native Catholics and the planters. And it's led
Speaker 1: in turn to two religious conflicts. Now these are religious conflicts.
Speaker 1: Now this is straight Catholic versus Protestant. This is religion.
Speaker 1: This is all about religion. Okay. It's not even documented
Speaker 1: as mentioning who they were, where they were from is
Speaker 1: mentioned as we're religious, okay. And they were known as
Speaker 1: the Irish Confederate Wars between sixteen forty one and sixteen
Speaker 1: fifty three, that was the Confederate Wars and the Willemite
Speaker 1: War between sixteen eighty nine and sixteen ninety one. Both
Speaker 1: these wars were fought in and contested, but both were
Speaker 1: one by the Protestants. Okay. They then started to dominate
Speaker 1: the northern areas of Ireland. Some areas down south were
Speaker 1: also beginning to become sort of infiltrated by them. So
Speaker 1: their presence on on Ireland had now become more than
Speaker 1: just you know what, you have this farmer, you have
Speaker 1: that farmer, you have this bit of land, you have
Speaker 1: that bit of land. They were now embedded, ingrained, they
Speaker 1: had communities, they had a large presence there, a large
Speaker 1: presence which eventually would leave to the some of the
Speaker 1: county's breaking away and becoming part of the Crown in
Speaker 1: the UK seventeen ninety one to ninety and followed the
Speaker 1: foundation the Republican Society of the United Irishman by Presbyterians,
Speaker 1: Catholics and Liberal Anglicans who all club together to try
Speaker 1: and cosh the Protestants. They had a failed rebellion in
Speaker 1: seven and sectarian violence between Catholics and Protestants continued. So
Speaker 1: you can see even as far back as seventeen one
Speaker 1: there was sectarian violence, sectarian violence being Protestant versus Catholic. Okay,
Speaker 1: And I can't stress this enough, this Protestant versus Catholic thing.
Speaker 1: And it's one of the things that even now when
Speaker 1: you speak to some people, even in Scotland, and somebody
Speaker 1: estates up there who for the want of me, I
Speaker 1: can't imagine why why they get so involved? And so
Speaker 1: he did. When it was the Scottish with the with
Speaker 1: the English, who have men who who originally first one
Speaker 1: over there together, it's very difficult for some of these
Speaker 1: people to actually understand because they don't understand this. This
Speaker 1: history goes back a long long way. I speak to ulsterman,
Speaker 1: I speak to Irishman, and I speak to people from
Speaker 1: both sides of the community who don't understand this. So
Speaker 1: when I hear people banging on about it in places
Speaker 1: like Scotland, you know, young lads twenty years old supporting
Speaker 1: clubs like Celtic, you know, wanting harm on the British
Speaker 1: Army because of the troubles in Northern Ireland. They don't
Speaker 1: even know what the troubles were about. They weren't even
Speaker 1: alive and it was still going on. It's ridiculous, it
Speaker 1: really is. But there you go. That's my little round
Speaker 1: over on that. Okay, So coming on up in the
Speaker 1: ninety two, but a second decade of the twentieth century,
Speaker 1: Home rule or Irish self governance was on the brink
Speaker 1: of being conceded due to to the agitation of the
Speaker 1: Irish Parliamentary Party. Okay, so the Ulster Covenant was going
Speaker 1: to come into the force, and then it was going
Speaker 1: to you know, they carved up the land, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.
Speaker 1: You're now starting to see different parties representing different things.
Speaker 1: You're starting to see the emergence in proper of the
Speaker 1: Irish Republican Army, the UVF, the Ulster Volunteer Force is
Speaker 1: beginning to look more molded into the sort of stuff
Speaker 1: that we saw later on in the sixties, the Irish
Speaker 1: Volunteers split, with a majority known as the National Volunteers,
Speaker 1: supporting the war effort. All right, So you can now
Speaker 1: see we now got into First World War and Second
Speaker 1: World War territory where the good of the whole of Ireland,
Speaker 1: regardless of whether you wanted to be British or not British,
Speaker 1: at jeopardy from Germany. All right, Now we've got now
Speaker 1: we've got a proper war going on. Now we've got
Speaker 1: people trying to take everything offers, all right. So there
Speaker 1: was an element in Ireland who club together and fought
Speaker 1: bravely alongside our troops are American troops, you know, European counterparts,
Speaker 1: all that sort of stuff. Everybody club together to battle
Speaker 1: the Germans, which we did. But then once things is
Speaker 1: settled down, you know, later on that century, in around
Speaker 1: the sixties, it started picking up again, you know, but
Speaker 1: this time a marginalize woman at the Irish Republican RDY
Speaker 1: survived the Irish Civil War. This would become a major
Speaker 1: impact in Northern Ireland. All right, So in the late sixties,
Speaker 1: let's have a look at the let's look a few
Speaker 1: of the timelines. Now, then, in the late sixties, there's
Speaker 1: little argument on the exact date of the start of
Speaker 1: the troubles. Different writers have suggested different dates. These include
Speaker 1: the formation of the modern Olfster Volunteer Force ninety sixty six,
Speaker 1: or civil rights smarts in Londonderry in nineties sixty eight
Speaker 1: and the beginning of the Battle of the Box Side
Speaker 1: on the twelfth of August sixty nine, or do you
Speaker 1: go right back to the deploy of the British troops
Speaker 1: on the four in August nine? Wherever you believe the
Speaker 1: troubles started. The troubles as well, you know them today,
Speaker 1: started in the sixties, without a doubt, Okay, that is,
Speaker 1: that is, without a doubt when the troubles as we
Speaker 1: know them started. So let's just give you a quick,
Speaker 1: a quick sort of like a quick splurge over over
Speaker 1: some of the events that happened in almost ninety sixty nine.
Speaker 1: There was riots and a massive after Marfa K all this,
Speaker 1: it's really difficult. It's going to take me more than
Speaker 1: one show to explain all this properly. But throughout all
Speaker 1: this trouble that they've had, they still have every year
Speaker 1: Apprentice Boys of Londonderry marching and as they do in
Speaker 1: their marching season, So there's always been this sort of
Speaker 1: like one upmanship on their neighbors, all right, So there's
Speaker 1: always a show of strength from one community against another.
Speaker 1: None of it, by the way, helps, but you know
Speaker 1: you can understand why they do it. So nine sixty
Speaker 1: nine is riots. By the time we get into the seventies,
Speaker 1: violence peaks and storm and collapses a case. So now
Speaker 1: we're probably a roper situation now where the military get
Speaker 1: deployed in full strength. There are on the streets properly
Speaker 1: in response to that. The IRA they're bolstering their numbers,
Speaker 1: they're recruiting. Obviously, we're now seen as invaders, and I've
Speaker 1: gotta say you, if you invaded London, I'd stand and
Speaker 1: fire against anybody that came in. So it's not that
Speaker 1: I'm going to turn around and disagree with some of
Speaker 1: the motives and the reasons to why these people got involved.
Speaker 1: What I do strongly disagree. Is the methods that they
Speaker 1: operated against and turning the terrorism for me is never
Speaker 1: ever an option. Violence is never Violence is always the
Speaker 1: last card in the pack as far as I'm concerned, toclay,
Speaker 1: and that's how it should be. Nick Kaufman here, I'm
Speaker 1: the editor in chief of safrep dot com, and I'd
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Speaker 1: out mac Weldon today. The next real sort a lot
Speaker 1: of timeline was a thing which is going to be
Speaker 1: a fall in the side of the British Army for
Speaker 1: years and years to come up with. Imagine when as
Speaker 1: far as this problem is gold And it was Bloody Sunday,
Speaker 1: and I've had discussion on discussion on discussion about Bloody Sunday.
Speaker 1: I've actually met some of the guys and Bloody Sunday.
Speaker 1: I've seen the aftermath of Bloody Sunday off seeing the
Speaker 1: accusations flying both so and we will do a separate
Speaker 1: show completely on Bloody Sunday. But basically, there was a
Speaker 1: stand too in the box side at the bottom of
Speaker 1: the Rossville Flats where firing started. Okay, both sides will
Speaker 1: say that the other side started it, but no matter what.
Speaker 1: In the aftermath, there were quite a few civilians left
Speaker 1: dead when they were discovered they were unarmed. That's not
Speaker 1: to say that the weapons weren't taken off them or
Speaker 1: anything like that. I'm not going to suggest that for
Speaker 1: a minute, okay, But we were, like I said, we'll
Speaker 1: do a separate show in this altogether. But the aftermath
Speaker 1: of that was that they claimed that they had been
Speaker 1: fired upon as in instant civilians the parachute Regiment who
Speaker 1: were involved heavily, and it said no, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: no no, the IRA attacked does And so this standoff
Speaker 1: and this court cases and this hatred and the trust
Speaker 1: moreover within the community was completely lost, okay. And the
Speaker 1: hatred excelled cell to a new level with Bloody Sunday.
Speaker 1: So no matter how you see it, how you call it,
Speaker 1: how you want to how you want to go about things,
Speaker 1: Bloody Sunday did no favors for the for the for
Speaker 1: the peace in Northern Ireland, right, escalated things to a
Speaker 1: new level, all right. And in response to that there
Speaker 1: were several heinous attacks by the I r A. And
Speaker 1: then in response for that, there's more deployment of troops
Speaker 1: and you can see how things built up. So we're
Speaker 1: now we're now in the seventies, we're at full tilt
Speaker 1: mid seventies and later seventies, the whole thing is still
Speaker 1: going off, but the Lake Centeries war weariness was visible
Speaker 1: in both communities, all right. People were getting sick of
Speaker 1: this after the first ten years on both sides of
Speaker 1: the thing. And don't forget in every conflict area I've
Speaker 1: been to, and I've been to a few of my time,
Speaker 1: including Northern Ireland where I served. I've served around five
Speaker 1: years over there on operational duty. There's a lot of
Speaker 1: people in all these areas, everywhere I've ever been, that
Speaker 1: I don't want war, that just want peace, that want
Speaker 1: to be able to cut around their everyday life and
Speaker 1: do their everyday thing, all right, And for whatever reason,
Speaker 1: after a while this starts, these conflicts start affecting everybody,
Speaker 1: either a displacement of people or the communities are getting
Speaker 1: worn down. It's a horrible thing to watch. In one
Speaker 1: I'm trying to get my facts right here, so that's
Speaker 1: why I'm reading a few things off my notes. In
Speaker 1: Irish Hunger Strike, ten Republican prisoners, seven from the Provisional
Speaker 1: IRA and free from Inland, died of starvation. The first
Speaker 1: striker to die was a guy called Bobby sands. Again,
Speaker 1: they were trying to get themselves treated as prisoners of war,
Speaker 1: these terrorists that were being and I don't agree with
Speaker 1: that at all. They were terrorists, their criminals. All right,
Speaker 1: they get locked away, but they didn't. They kicked and rebelled,
Speaker 1: and we had the blanket people where they shipped all
Speaker 1: over their cells. They refused to wash and all this
Speaker 1: sort of stuff, and in the end they went on
Speaker 1: strike until they started dying. Bobby Sounds being the first. Again,
Speaker 1: I would do a whole piece on this incident, but
Speaker 1: it was another thing that helped to propel the thing
Speaker 1: into the next ten years. Ten years morning in the
Speaker 1: ninety nineties, n the ira A continued it's on armed campaign.
Speaker 1: It now had a larger political winder called Shin piloted
Speaker 1: by the likes of Jerry Adams and Martin McGuinness. They
Speaker 1: were trying to get political but with the same aims.
Speaker 1: They still in my opinion, supported the activities of the
Speaker 1: Irish Republican Army, but they probably at this stage realized
Speaker 1: that they need to they needed to try and negotiate
Speaker 1: on a different plane or they were never going to
Speaker 1: go anywhere with any of this. Because the British government's
Speaker 1: stance on terrorism and it will be forever, is we
Speaker 1: don't negotiate with terrorists. We can't do You can't negotiate
Speaker 1: with terrorists. You can't be held to ransom because somebody
Speaker 1: is going to terrorize you. You just can't do it.
Speaker 1: As a country. You will go down the tubes if
Speaker 1: you do so. Then he stuff started up, and then
Speaker 1: in the UK on the main land they pub they
Speaker 1: bombed pubs, innocent civilians now, not even going after people
Speaker 1: in uniform. They bombed pubs. So the Irish came over here,
Speaker 1: they bombed pubs, They did the attack on Hyde Park.
Speaker 1: They'll say that in response we shot three of them
Speaker 1: in Gibraltar, which we did, but they didn't tell I
Speaker 1: didn't suggests that they were going to blow it. So
Speaker 1: it was real tip for tat stuff. Now. And I'm
Speaker 1: going to go into each one of these incidents. In fact,
Speaker 1: I'm going to do a show for you from Gibraltar,
Speaker 1: and I'm going to go through that whole incident from
Speaker 1: from start to finish and how they were led to
Speaker 1: how the whole thing unfolded, So that would be quite interesting.
Speaker 1: But but then the end went into a period of ceasefires,
Speaker 1: and there were two two main cease fires, of which
Speaker 1: I was out there for one in particular. And even
Speaker 1: though there were ceasefires on, there was still an undercurrent
Speaker 1: of activity happening in the back. And even once the
Speaker 1: political place, the political process started to kick in, there
Speaker 1: was still a massive level of mistrust between all involved. Okay,
Speaker 1: it's it's a really difficult it's a really difficult thing
Speaker 1: to explain, and that's why I need to really break
Speaker 1: this down into different shows so that I can I can,
Speaker 1: I can explain. But today we're all on giving you
Speaker 1: as a broad brush aspect on how we got to
Speaker 1: where we are. Okay, fine, there's a collusion between the
Speaker 1: security forces and the paralelitaries. There were still massive issues,
Speaker 1: like they have what's called the disappeared. During the seventies
Speaker 1: and eighties, Republican and Royalist paramilitaries abducted a number of individuals.
Speaker 1: One of them was Captain Robert Nirek. His body has
Speaker 1: never been discovered. A number of the bodies have never
Speaker 1: been discovered. Yeah, they just disappeared from the face of
Speaker 1: the earth without a trace. All right, we know they
Speaker 1: were abducted by paramilitaries Okay, yeah, nothing's have been done
Speaker 1: about it, so that disappeared. They will shoot to kill allegations,
Speaker 1: really shoot to kill. Now, the Republicans allows that the
Speaker 1: security forces operated a shoot to kill policy rather than
Speaker 1: arresting ira A suspects. That isself. Really it's just all ship.
Speaker 1: You would be shot if you were committing an act
Speaker 1: that was in danger in your life or someone else's.
Speaker 1: All right, that is that. And you don't shoot to
Speaker 1: tickle people. You don't fire warning shots. If you're going
Speaker 1: to fire a weapon. A weapon is designed to do
Speaker 1: one thing and that's killed people. So yes, there was
Speaker 1: a shoot to kill policy in my opinion. And if
Speaker 1: you're going to fire your weapon, you went through a
Speaker 1: graded response which you were governed by yellow card, which
Speaker 1: you all fully understood. You all had legal briefings on.
Speaker 1: So if you ended up shooting you, if you ended
Speaker 1: up firing your weapon, the perceived outcome as you're going
Speaker 1: to kill somebody. So in that respect, yes, there is
Speaker 1: a shoot to kill thing. I'm going to cover that
Speaker 1: again in great detail. But one of their main grants
Speaker 1: was the killing of a ira A man at Lock
Speaker 1: Hall seven. But those ira amen were heavily armed with
Speaker 1: body armor on and turned up with a bomb in
Speaker 1: a digger. I mean really, and you expect us, what
Speaker 1: were you supposed to do? Talk to you out of
Speaker 1: blowing deeple up and shooting them. So you can see
Speaker 1: I'm getting rather heated with this now, because some of
Speaker 1: this stuff really does beggars believe. It's like no, no, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: no no. Anyway, So as it progressed, then there were
Speaker 1: all sorts of social repercussions on both sides. Massive casualties. Okay,
Speaker 1: three thousand, five hundred and thirty two people were killed
Speaker 1: as a result of the conflict between nineteen sixty nine
Speaker 1: and two thousand and one. All right, that's a lot
Speaker 1: of people. That is a lot of people dying as
Speaker 1: a result of the troubles. That's more than a trouble
Speaker 1: to me. Okay, let's just have a look at the
Speaker 1: responsibility for the killing in the Irish paramilitary groups two
Speaker 1: thousand and fifty seven, the Loyalist paramilitary groups one thousand
Speaker 1: and twenty seven, British Security Forces three hundred and sixty three. Again,
Speaker 1: and they call us the aggressors, all right, persons unknown
Speaker 1: eighty Irish Security Forces five Okay, So that's you know,
Speaker 1: that gives you a breakdown, that gives you an idea
Speaker 1: of the activity that was being undertaken. Right obviously with
Speaker 1: the largest the largest toll going to the Republican paramilitary
Speaker 1: groups who were the main instigators of a lot of
Speaker 1: the trouble. Okay, in as far as actual fist and
Speaker 1: boot bulletin bomb violence goes all right, and as far
Speaker 1: as instigating the troubles as a whole, well, once we've
Speaker 1: been through all this, you know, I'll let you make
Speaker 1: your own mind up what you would have done if
Speaker 1: it was your estate or if you were a soldier
Speaker 1: serving there, that's what you've got to look at. But
Speaker 1: like I said, we we will go into all this
Speaker 1: in massive detail, and I will break down some of
Speaker 1: the main incidents like lock All lug a broader, like
Speaker 1: Bloody Sunday, like the Birmingham pub bombings, like Hyde Park,
Speaker 1: will do them on separate occasions and and you can
Speaker 1: build a picture. Because I think that there's too many
Speaker 1: people who bang on about, you know, the troubles and
Speaker 1: bang on again and don't understand. And this this is
Speaker 1: one of my main reasons of doing this, is that
Speaker 1: there's a lot of people out there who are going
Speaker 1: to vote for Jeremy Corbyn who actively endorses and refuses
Speaker 1: to condone the activities of a terrorist organization like the
Speaker 1: Irish Republican Army, And there's too many petnos country white
Speaker 1: willing to waiver that to one side for what can
Speaker 1: only be described as their own as their own wants.
Speaker 1: I you know, Jeremy Corbyn's promised them, has promised them
Speaker 1: that promised to the other. He could promise me. He
Speaker 1: could promise me a wage of a hundred grand a
Speaker 1: year and as much gold as I can carry out
Speaker 1: the out of the vaults. I am never going to
Speaker 1: vote for Corbin as long as I've got a bone
Speaker 1: in my body that's got any loyalty to the Crown.
Speaker 1: I can't because too many people suffered during those troubles
Speaker 1: for me not to condone the activities of the Irish
Speaker 1: Republican Army. So I'll leave it there with you. Um
Speaker 1: that's that. That That's how I feel about it. I
Speaker 1: say we will break it down. I want people to
Speaker 1: understand what went on. I am trying to be as
Speaker 1: unbiased as I can. Obviously, I've been affected by the
Speaker 1: troubles myself been in contact with the Irish Republican Enemy
Speaker 1: army more than once in my time. Okay, which I'll
Speaker 1: tell you those stories as well, but for now we'll
Speaker 1: leave it there and I'll move on. Wow. That was
Speaker 1: that was That was a mouthful, wasn't it? But I
Speaker 1: like to say, I think it's worth talking about because
Speaker 1: there's still people basing their decisions and not understanding exactly
Speaker 1: what went on during the troubles. There we go. So
Speaker 1: let's absolute dogs, shall we. Let's talk about a dog.
Speaker 1: I want to talk about the dog, which is a
Speaker 1: hunting dog, all right. It's a fierce hunting dog. You
Speaker 1: get big ones, you get little ones, you get doty ones,
Speaker 1: all right. So across the across this period of time,
Speaker 1: they've been bred in all different shapes and sizes. Nobody
Speaker 1: really knows where this dog came from. It's suggested that
Speaker 1: its roots were from Germany a very long time ago.
Speaker 1: But the poodle, the poodle, that's gonna make your laugh
Speaker 1: at the poodle. You don't like a poodle, all right?
Speaker 1: The poodle poodle is an extremely interesting dog, all right.
Speaker 1: It was developed especially for hunting, but hunting water fowl,
Speaker 1: so they call it a diving dog. All right, it hurts,
Speaker 1: it hunts, but moreover, it can do all that. It's
Speaker 1: a water dog, all right. It is a dog that's
Speaker 1: designed to work on the water, all right, so it swims.
Speaker 1: I only found this out not so long ago when
Speaker 1: I started looking at the dogs to do these shows,
Speaker 1: and it absolutely amazed me. And you know, they cut
Speaker 1: these dogs in his bizare sort of like in his bazarre,
Speaker 1: you know, with a big fiit feet, and they cut
Speaker 1: these shapes, and those shapes are designed to help the
Speaker 1: dog swim. Now that's amazing. And it's that all those
Speaker 1: fancy haircuts you see on the poodles when they showing
Speaker 1: them off at these various dog shows, they originate from
Speaker 1: giving the dog the best chance for swimming more effectively
Speaker 1: in war. How amazing is that? That's really cool in it?
Speaker 1: So I was really impressed with that when I when
Speaker 1: I when I when I first started reading into this.
Speaker 1: Many believe that the breeding result of crosses between several
Speaker 1: European water dogs, including Spanish, Portuguese, French, German and Hungarian.
Speaker 1: Our historians think that the poodle's predecessor or of North
Speaker 1: Africa and was important to do to the Iberian Polinceiva,
Speaker 1: and that the breed arrived in gaul where it was
Speaker 1: used for hunting. For its hunting abilities, there's no doubt
Speaker 1: that this dog is a hunter, right, There's no doubt
Speaker 1: that the agility of the dog, the way that it works,
Speaker 1: the intelligence of the dogs are very intelligent dog all right.
Speaker 1: They're very They're very easy. They're very good to train. Right,
Speaker 1: you can train a poodle. It does what it's told
Speaker 1: it is. It's a nice dog, all right. There's no
Speaker 1: doubt in my mind it's a hunting dog. Although it's
Speaker 1: probably seen by many people nowadays as more as a
Speaker 1: fashion accessory. When you actually look at the ancestry of
Speaker 1: the dog, there's illustrations of food, are like dogs in Egypt,
Speaker 1: Roman Roman times, and all sorts of things that go
Speaker 1: right back before christ decay. This dog is a nail's dog.
Speaker 1: It's a good dog, all right. The bigger ones, the
Speaker 1: larger ones, I would imagine, could be quite ferocious. You know,
Speaker 1: they are. There are there are. Although you've got the
Speaker 1: miniature and the toy ones, and they're all very nice
Speaker 1: to look at and all that sort of stuff. You've
Speaker 1: got to not having the bag in mind that this
Speaker 1: is a working dog, all right. This dog was bred
Speaker 1: to work. This dog was bred to go after animals.
Speaker 1: This dog was bred, you know, to pull things out
Speaker 1: of out of holes, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. Okay, so a
Speaker 1: great dog. The sizes that are dugged them. There are
Speaker 1: three different sizes the poodle, toy, the miniature, and standard.
Speaker 1: And like they say, these aren't different breeds, they're just
Speaker 1: different sizes of the same dog. The toy poodle stands
Speaker 1: about ten inches and ways about six to nine pounds.
Speaker 1: The miniature poodle stands in eleven to fifteen inch or
Speaker 1: two and ways about fifteen to seventeen pounds. The standard
Speaker 1: poodles fifteen inches and tall, are usually about twenty two
Speaker 1: to twenty three inches, and the males weigh forty five
Speaker 1: to seventy pounds and the females a little bit smaller,
Speaker 1: forty five to sixty pounds. So you can say that's
Speaker 1: quite a big dog, you know what I mean. And
Speaker 1: there's no fat on these dogs. They're healthy, they're fit,
Speaker 1: they're strong dogs, all right. The personality is said to
Speaker 1: be intelligent, loving, loyal, mischievous are four words poodle and
Speaker 1: fuses continually used with his brief personality. The poodle is
Speaker 1: also known for what fans call an air of distinction.
Speaker 1: It walks with an attitude. The poodle struts around like
Speaker 1: it owns a place. They really are a cool dog,
Speaker 1: all right. If you see a poodle, my Andrew does it.
Speaker 1: My Scottish terrier, he does it when he has his haircut.
Speaker 1: He looks in there and he goes, yeah, I look
Speaker 1: like the d anglies. And the same with these poodles.
Speaker 1: They cut around like they own the place when they've
Speaker 1: have their hair done. They really do. They show off
Speaker 1: almost they show off that. One of the best qualities
Speaker 1: which Andrew doesn't have, which these dogs definitely do have.
Speaker 1: They are highly trainable, and so that means that they're
Speaker 1: a good family dog. They're good with strangers, you're good
Speaker 1: in public. You can take them places. Because it's so intelligence,
Speaker 1: like they say, you can make it do things. The
Speaker 1: downside of it in boodles are generally healthy, but like
Speaker 1: all breeds, they've got certain health conditions. If you're buying
Speaker 1: a puppy, you need to buy it from a decent breeder.
Speaker 1: If you can buy one that's got all the paperwork
Speaker 1: with it and all that sort of stuff because it
Speaker 1: will come not with a guarantee. You can't guarantee anything
Speaker 1: in life when you're dealing with livestock or animals. But
Speaker 1: if you know the history of the thing, if you've
Speaker 1: seen the parents of the dog, and all the normal stuff,
Speaker 1: all right, you can pretty much guarantee guarantee that you're
Speaker 1: going to get something, then better than if you've just
Speaker 1: bought it from one of these puppy farms. They do
Speaker 1: have a couple of diseases that it gets. Addison's disease.
Speaker 1: I can't even say what that one's called in a
Speaker 1: thing a bit, it's it's a serious condition and it
Speaker 1: will end in a poor, poor appetite and all that
Speaker 1: sort of stuff. So if your dogs not eating properly,
Speaker 1: it needs to go straight in. If it's a if
Speaker 1: it's a poodle, because they can have this this Addison's disease,
Speaker 1: and that disease can kill them. They get various other
Speaker 1: things crushings, disease, gastric dietation, or bloating. They are known
Speaker 1: to suffer from epilepsy. Hips can go wrong. They are,
Speaker 1: like I say, because they are such a strong fit
Speaker 1: dog normally, you know, I find with some of these breeds,
Speaker 1: the ones that their hips go is because they are
Speaker 1: such a thrusting, pulling dog. I wouldn't be surprised if
Speaker 1: Andrew's problems with his hips one day because he's always pulling,
Speaker 1: He's always choking at the lead, that sort of stuff.
Speaker 1: They're always exercising himself to the max. But like they say,
Speaker 1: great dogs, so the poodle. Who would have thought? Who
Speaker 1: would have thought that the poodle was a swimming dog?
Speaker 1: There you go, just goes to show you anyway. Look,
Speaker 1: I should be around again in the next In the
Speaker 1: next week or so, I think my next show is on.
Speaker 1: Don't forget. In the meantime, get yourself along online and
Speaker 1: have a look at the great club. They're turning out
Speaker 1: some great stuff for Christmas. I've been lost without my
Speaker 1: create for Christmas. I can tell you I also have
Speaker 1: a Butcher's that what I'm doing online. I'm heavily featured
Speaker 1: on on the on the soft up Facebook page. You've
Speaker 1: got soft rup dot com, of course, where you can
Speaker 1: go and over and look at some really cool stuff.
Speaker 1: Lots going on the pipelone, certainly lots going on. Next year.
Speaker 1: You should hopefully see a lot more of me I
Speaker 1: got some really cool I planned for next year. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna let you know very shortly how the elections went
Speaker 1: and all that sort of stuff. That will do a
Speaker 1: show dedicated to the elections, probably another dog and a
Speaker 1: bit more of the travels. So until then, until next time,
Speaker 1: and I'll see you all very soon. Who dares wins
Speaker 1: And I'll see you all later. You've been listening to
Speaker 1: Self Rep Radio. New episodes up every Wednesday and Friday.
Speaker 1: Follow the show on Instagram and Twitter at self Rep Radio.