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.
Stray Bullets
All The Dead Men's Dreams: Sinn Féin, Commemoration and the Complex Reality of Ireland
Another unplanned episode. This time I consider Michelle O'Neill's laying of a wreath at the cenotaph in Belfast on Remembrance Sunday and the reaction to same. I guess the theme of this episode is the complex reality of Ireland and this got me thinking about Francis Ledwidge also, so I've included a very brief musing on the complex (contradictory(?)) reality personified by Ledwidge. I was hoping to include Robert Graves too, but decided to leave him for a future episode.
I hope my delivery this episode isn't too scattergun as my CPTSD can cause my thoughts to crash through my words.
In the next episode I'll be again looking at the RUC and collusion with a final input from Det / 14 Int.
Many thanks
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