Stray Bullets
Having served over thirty years in the RUC / PSNI I was medically retired with CPTSD. Dissociative Identity Disorder also evolved in me as a residue of CPTSD. I wrote a novel, 'The Bitter End of Dreams', through which I hoped to reflect the experiences of working class folk caught in the grip of a sectarian conflict. I set my story in Belfast, but replaced the Judeo-Christian god with that of Mithras. I also gave Northern Ireland an extra county. Such counterfactual alterations opened up for me the opportunity to place my story deep within the NI Troubles without being shackled to specific timelines, events and real people - thus avoiding the risk of libelling anyone, while being able to write a story, familiar to many, and retaining a sense of place and the tragedy of the Troubles. I'm going to talk openly about elements of policing the Troubles, religion, politics, sectarianism and our toxic ideologies. I've explored these topics in my novel, as well as the placing of actual events and atrocities; albeit heavily disguised or deeply submerged in subtext.To better frame my thoughts I will, firstly, discuss each chapter in sequence before reading that chapter. In this way I should be able to complete a spoken word version of my novel while using the opportunity it provides to elaborate on its creation process in the context of the NI Troubles.Thank you.
*Apologies to the many folks who conversed with me on several social media platforms. Due to the level of hate, including threats, from ex-RUC colleagues I've decided to stay off social media and the like. I'm very dismayed by such reaction, but, in hindsight, no longer surprised.*
Stray Bullets
Imagined Communities: The RUC and Loyalism
Since the establishment of Northern Ireland in 1921, and the Royal Ulster Constabulary a year later, it has been acknowledged that the RUC was overwhelmingly comprised of those from the protestant community within Northern Ireland. This factor led, in small part, to a lineage of 'police families'; fathers, mothers, sons and daughters continuing the tradition of their forbearers by enlisting as RUC officers. When the Troubles ignited in 1969 it saw the RUC become over-stretched and constantly having to adapt and counter an increasingly hostile landscape of terrorism which took a heavy toll on mundane policing practices. It wasn't long before Loyalist paramilitaries assumed a role by which they envisaged themselves as having to protect their own communities given a, perceived, growing absence of police from those areas. But just how did Loyalist terrorists see themselves in relation to the RUC and how did that relationship crumble over the period of the Troubles? This is what I hope to discuss in the episode. However, I have not been able to include all I wished and therefore there may be a further episode considering Loyalism and the RUC.
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