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
State-Terrorism and PIRA's 'No Alternative' to violence: Part I: From NICRA to OCGs
The first episode looking at a new series of topics. I've an awful lot to unpack in succeeding episodes, so this is more of an episode in which I will begin to establish some factors preceding the Troubles as well as considering a small part of PIRA's Green Book and which leads me on to present day Northern Ireland's plague of violent organised crime groups.
Sources
Patterson, Henry, The Politics of Illusion: a Political History of the IRA, London, Serif, 1997
Jackson, Alvin, Ireland 1798 - 1998: Politics and War, Oxford, Blackwell, 1999
Purdie, Bob, Was the Civil Rights Movement a Republican / Communist Conspiracy, Irish Political Studies 3
English, Richard, Armed Struggle: the History of the IRA, London, Macmillan, 2003
Alonso, Rogelio, The IRA and Armed Struggle, London and New York, Routledge, 2007
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