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
State-Terrorism and PIRA's 'No Alternative' to violence: Part IV: 'To Die A Soldier's Death ... '
A look at the concept of 'state-terrorism' and if such is in itself rendered incoherent in a climate of violent insurrection. Also, the 'showcase ambushes' by British Special Forces. Were these not in effect the lethal confrontation of two opposing forces, one personifying the Irish Republican (understood?) risk of their own blood sacrifice, the other effecting a stop and destroy operation against a well-armed for?
No easy answers, but I continue to try and understand the myriad dynamics which churned and boiled the waters of our 'civilized' society. I also consider the final words of the 1916 Easter Uprising leaders such as Pearse, Connolly and Plunkett.
Bibliography:
Richardson, Louise, What Terrorists Want, New York: Random House, 2006
Bitner, Rüdiger, Morals in terrorist times, in Meggle (ed.), Ethics of Terrorism and Counter-Terrorism, Frankfurt, 2005
[1916]: Public Records Office, Kew, London / War Office Records: 71/354; 71/345
MacLochlainn, Piaras F., Last Words : Letters and Statements of the Leaders Executed after the Rising at Easter 1916, Dublin, 1990
Bateson, Ray, They Died By Pearse's Side, Irish Graves Publications, 2010
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