Belfast ‘Peace Line’ over @IrishCentral

This week in 1969, the Belfast ‘peace line’ between the Falls and Shankill began to be changed from barbed wire to a solid visual barrier so the two communities could not even see each other. It has remained that way ever since. Here’s a piece I wrote on it for Irish Central. You can read

The path to the IRA Split: September 1969

September 1969 witnessed more milestones in the journey towards the split in the IRA. From a Belfast perspective, key events happened over the course of 22-24 September when the Battalion informed Cathal Goulding’s Dublin-based IRA leadership that it no longer recognised it’s authority. This had its roots in multiple different historical issues. The most immediate

Revisiting 1969: the Belfast IRA, reactions and responses

This is a brief account of IRA activity in Belfast over the course of 13-15th August 1969 and its reaction to events. [A brief warning: I’ve included some graphic press images of the violence in Belfast below. Published images and footage of the night-time violence appear to be almost non-existent, despite the clear presence of

Revisiting 1969: Declaration to the people of 26 Counties

Statement as published, Irish Press 18th August 1969: We, Paddy Devlin, Paddy Kennedy and Paddy O’Hanlon, being elected representatives of the Parliament of Northern Ireland, address the people of the 26 Counties and state the Unionist Government are now pursuing a deliberate policy of genocide against the Catholic population of the six counties of Northern

Revisiting 1969: armoured cars and tanks and guns

This is the latest in a series of articles reconsidering events in the summer of 1969. On this occasion looking briefly at the killing of Patrick Rooney, the use of armoured cars by the RUC, a man called Paisley and a book called Unholy Smoke. On 14th August, 1969, the Unionist government agreed to reintroduce

Revisiting 1969: standing idly by

Famously, on 13th August 1969, Taoiseach Jack Lynch said “It is clear, also, that the Irish Government can no longer stand by and see innocent people injured and perhaps worse.” (you can watch the full speech here). While he didn’t actually say ‘stand idly by’, a phrase often ascribed to him, those words had been

Revisiting 1969: Internment

The use of internment by the Unionist government is often associated with the 9th August 1971 when mass arrests took place across the north. However, internment had been used on a frequent basis by the Unionist government since 1922. Whilst hundreds of men and women were interned in 1938-1945 and 1957-1962, there were a number

Revisiting 1969: #peacewalls50

The peace line formally erected in 1969 is directly associated with the events of 14th and 15th August 1969. With the fiftieth anniversary of those days looming, I’m going to recap some previous posts on the peace line. The course of the Shankill/Falls peaceline closely mirrors the path of the River Farset as it winds