Trailer for my next episode in which I take a look at new look nationalist attitudes towards policing in Northern Ireland prior to the Troubles.

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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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Another impromptu episode. This time about the Irish hip hop band Kneecap and the recent furore they've stirred. My reasons for talking about them will become evident. I've also added some memories about policing Divis.

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This episode further examines the Provisional IRA's assertion that there was no alternative to armed struggle.

Works cited:

White, Robert W., Provisional Irish Republicans: an Oral and Interpretive History, Westport, Greenwood Press, 1993

Hennessey, Thomas, Northern Ireland: the Origins of the Troubles, Dublin, Gill & Macmillan, 2005

Smith, Anthony D., Nationalism: Theory, Ideology, History, Oxford, Blackwell, 2001

Click here if you’d like to send me a comment or question. Thank you.

Click here if you’d like to send me a comment or question. Thank you.

Just another impromptu episode in respect of the PSNI Chief Constable's recent despondency at our politician's seeming indifference to the policing budget, and the fact that 'fit for duty' police numbers are dangerously low and overstretched.

I also briefly talk about my feelings surrounding the continuing intransigence of the Intelligence Services concerning the murder of Sean Brown.

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Moving forward I consider some statements made in the past by PIRA volunteers in respect of 'engineering' the conflict, or, conversely, having the armed struggle forced upon them by the actions of the British.

As ever I must admit to straying off on one - or two - tangents, such as a 'murder safari', a term I've coined for, well, it'll become evident...

Sources referred to in this episode:

Alonso, Rogelio, The IRA and Armed Struggle, London and New York: Routledge, 2007

Hennessey, Thomas, Northern Ireland: the Origins of the Troubles, Dublin: Gill and Macmillan, 2005

MacStiofáin, Seán, Memoirs of a Revolutionary, Edinburgh: Gordon Cremonesi, 1975

O'Doherty, Malachi, The Trouble with Guns: Republican Strategy and the Provisional IRA, Belfast: Blackstaff, 1998

White, Robert W., Provisional Irish Republicans: an Oral and Interpretive History, Westpoint, CT: Greenwood Press, 1993

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Another impromptu episode, of sorts, before I continue my look at PIRA's 'no alternative' to violence and state-terrorism.

Here, I'm momentarily reflecting upon Special Branch handlers, Northern Irish policing and Catholic recruitment as well as the 'post-policing gaze' that preoccupies an awful lot of police officers: past, present and probably future.

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