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Divisions between north and south Ireland were prevalent since the 1920s. Yet, until the 1970s, nobody in public life in the Republic of Ireland argued that partition was justified. This book examines in detail the impact of the Northern Irish Troubles on southern Irish society during the period 1968-79. It begins with the aftermath of the civil rights march in Derry in October 1968 and traces the reaction to the events until the autumn of 1972. The impact of August 1969, the aftermath of internment and the response to Bloody Sunday are examined. The book looks at violence south of the border, particularly bombings and shootings and their human cost, and examines state security, censorship and the popular protests associated with these issues. A general outlook at the changing attitudes to refugees and northern nationalists is provided before describing the impact of the conflict on southern Protestants. The controversies concerning the Irish Republican Army and their activities are highlighted. The book looks at the question of revisionism and how debates about history were played out in academia as well as at a popular level. A variety of social and cultural responses to the conflict are examined, including attitudes to Britain and northern Unionists. For many southerners, Ulster was practically a foreign country and Northern Ireland did not seem very Irish. By 1979, the prospect of an end to the conflict seemed dim.
of the security forces had made it near impossible for leaders of the minority to argue for anything less. In this respect, Bloody Sunday represented the culmination in a process of radicalisation of the minority which began with the first attacks on civil rights marches in 1968. This process, and the gradual recrudescence of traditional republicanism throughout, had a definite impact on Hume’s articulation of his position on Irish unity. Indeed, it is worth considering in some detail the gradual change that occurred during this period in the way that Hume spoke
remains of British soldiers killed in Afghanistan, particularly at Wootton Bassett, and in their identikit obituaries – reproduced in media accounts as key elements in the eternal narrative of the ‘brave British Tommy’. And it was very evident in British media coverage of the conflict in Northern Ireland, whenever the British Army’s role came under scrutiny. Bloody Sunday in Derry, 30 January 1972, was one such case in point. That day, men of the 1st Battalion of the Parachute Regiment (1 Para) opened fire on civil rights marchers, killing thirteen and wounding another
outlines the controversies Introduction concerning the IRA and their activities. In Chapter 9 I look at the question of revisionism and how debates about history were played out not just in academia but also at a popular level. Chapter 10 is a examination of a variety of social and cultural responses to the conflict, including attitudes to Britain and northern Unionists. The book begins with the aftermath of the civil rights march in Derry in October 1968 and concludes in 1979 when the prospect of an end to the conflict seemed dim. While there had been a euphoric
Quinns visit Granny Kelly, their maternal grandmother. This scene could perhaps be read as the Kelly family simply identifying with authority rather than with ‘their own’, but the family’s arguments suggest something more specific about the aspirations of a rising middle class. 5 The talk quickly turns to the Civil Rights marchers, disparaged by Uncle Michael as ‘“Bloody head
Irish Times had a head start over its Dublin competitors in having its own full-time correspondent on the ground.14 135 The Troubles and censorship 135 Also on the ground was Douglas Gageby himself: he travelled to Derry on at least one occasion to participate in a civil-rights march and was not shy in calling things as he saw them. In one leading article he described the gerrymandering of Derry as ‘a travesty of democracy’.15 Things finally came to a head in October 1968 when Northern Ireland’s Minister of Home Affairs, William Craig, banned a civil- rights
’. Even those who had traditionally shunned republican sentiment, such as Fine Gael’s Paddy Donegan, called on the British Prime Minister to ‘withdraw immediately his army from Northern Ireland’. Donegan also promised Louth County Council that he would travel to the funerals in Derry and to a civil rights march in Newry the following Sunday.8 ‘Dignity and discipline’ That night, Jack Lynch appeared in a special broadcast on RTE (watched by 79% of households) and announced that the Irish ambassador was being withdrawn from London and that Wednesday, 2 February would be a
but this became increasingly untenable. In 1967 the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association (NICRA) was formed and began more public forms of protest against the Stormont regime. In June 1968 Austin Currie staged a housing sit-in in the village of Caledon, County Tyrone. The first civil rights march took place in August, travelling from Coalisland to Dungannon.6 Most significant, however, was the banned 5 October NICRA demonstration in Derry in which protestors were batoned by the RUC. Television cameras caught the clashes and the broadcasting of the images
Spring. I was politicised by these global events, as were so many of my contemporaries. But these were also the years of violent loyalist and British reaction to the civil rights protests in Northern Ireland: the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) and loyalist attacks on the civil rights marches in 1968 and 1969, the Battle of the Bogside and arrival of the British Army, internment in 1971, the emergence of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) to defend its areas, Bloody Sunday in Derry in 1972. I took part in the London protests, public meetings and demonstrations
This is the first book-length study of one of the most significant of all British television writers, Jimmy McGovern. The book provides comprehensive coverage of all his work for television including early writing on Brookside, major documentary dramas such as Hillsborough and Sunday and more recent series such as The Street and Accused.
Whilst the book is firmly focused on McGovern’s own work, the range of his output over the period in which he has been working also provides something of an overview of the radical changes in television drama commissioning that have taken place during this time. Without compromising his deeply-held convictions McGovern has managed to adapt to an ever changing environment, often using his position as a sought-after writer to defy industry trends.
The book also challenges the notion of McGovern as an uncomplicated social realist in stylistic terms. Looking particularly at his later work, a case is made for McGovern employing a greater range of narrative approaches, albeit subtly and within boundaries that allow him to continue to write for large popular audiences.
Finally it is worth pointing to the book’s examination of McGovern’s role in recent years as a mentor to new voices, frequently acting as a creative producer on series that he part-writes and part brings through different less-experienced names.