As with the Iraq series, BBC’s Once Upon a Time in Northern Ireland documentary series (produced by KEO Films and Walk on Air, in partnership with Open University) gives a platform to civilian victims and their families and this goes a long way to challenging the archetypal politicians’ public broadcast disguised as documentary. Additionally, the reflective interviews with, apparently, low level former Catholic and Protestant paramilitary members, provide an insight into how close the war was to the population. The viewer gets a vivid sense of life during the period as the effects of violence is described in personal detail by interviewees from Catholic and Protestant perspectives and, in a few cases, British military and police perspectives.
Like the Iraq series, however, the curated personal story approach leaves serious gaps. In Once Upon a Time in Iraq, there was little discussion on the legalities of the Iraqi invasion by coalition forces, led by the US and Britain, leaving the account grossly incomplete. In the Northern Ireland series, little sense is given as to British strategy, except, as “kind of saviours,” and “to stand in the middle, basically, and to stop them killing each other,” as Tom Wharton, a former British soldier, who was seriously injured in a bomb explosion, describes the military intervention.
The series starts with the Catholic civil rights movement of 1968, and the demand for “one man, one vote,” end to job and housing discrimination and political reform, amongst other demands from the Catholic minority in Northern Ireland. Repression of marches and increasing violence during demonstrations and clashes leads to British troops being deployed to Northern Ireland, on 14/15 August 1969 and the series describes how the apparent peacekeepers soon became embroiled in violence, including a policy of internment without trial and the Bloody Sunday massacre on 30 January 1972, when soldiers shot upon unarmed civilians, resulting in the deaths of fourteen. The series also describes brutal house raids by soldiers and, in the final episode, a specific shooting with a rubber bullet that blinded a child.
Unlike the Iraqi series, there is no British version of US Colonel Nathan Sassaman who personally and openly discussed the brutalisation that he ordered upon the Iraqi village, Abu Hishma, including barbed wiring it off and violently raiding houses and arresting civilians, in a vengeful act of collective punishment for the killing of a colleague. The lack of such a frank perspective from a senior British soldier may be down to the legal threat that still hangs over them in a way it does not over US or UK Iraq veterans.
In offering a little context to ‘The Troubles’ the series opens with a dramatic but inaccurate title sequence stating that in 1921 the south of Ireland gained independence from Britain. In actuality, the 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty, following a war of independence against British forces, enabled the formation of the Irish Free State as a self-governing dominion within the British Empire. In particular, the British government insisted that the Irish Parliament continue to swear an oath of allegiance to the King and the Royal Navy retain control of certain ports. The terms were formalised the following year, in 1922, and led to the 1922-23 Irish Civil War, as a faction of the Irish Army revolted against the compromise.
Episode 4 of the series does cover the 5 February 1992 Sean Graham Bookmakers’ murders, in Belfast, in which Ulster Defence Association (UDA) gunmen killed five civilians and wounded nine. Legal efforts by family members of the victims eventually formally exposed Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) collusion with the killers, which enabled the murders. Here the series introduces the viewer to the role of the British state, including the British Army and the Northern Ireland police in enabling paramilitary violence through working with and protecting informants or agents. The extent or impact of this dirty war, however, is not much explored.
The series has a further notable gap in that there is no interview with senior Loyalist paramilitary member or other interviewee to offer any insights into Loyalist strategy. On the other hand, there is an extensive interview with an apparently senior IRA man, Ricky, who discusses, amongst other things, the IRA strategy during the prisoner protests that culminated in the 1980/81 hunger strikes by IRA members in the Maze prison.
The series provides useful insight into the The Troubles in Northern Ireland, particularly, the experiences of civilians. The viewer is exposed to the divisiveness, relentlessness and brutality of the conflict. A powerful final episode showcases the personal efforts of reconciliation between a Catholic man blinded by a rubber bullet in 1972, as a child, and the British soldier who fired upon him. However, the series’ gaps, particularly, in terms of historical context and the British state role and strategy – albeit, perhaps, hampered by the ongoing legal threats that still hangs over participants – does leave the account seriously incomplete as to the war’s full dynamics.
Once Upon a Time in Northern Ireland is available to watch online for UK TV licence fee payers on BBC iPlayer.
IWM London is Changing 