Films, clips, documentaries etc on Norn Iron/Troubles etc

[DaveCinzano]

A few to kick off with...

Found 1981 Loyalist Recollections, an interesting series of interviews with former Loyalist prisoners Billy McQuiston, David Ervine and Sam Courtney talking about the prison protests - amongst Loyalists and Republicans - over withdrawal of Political Category Status 1977-81.



Here's Shoot To Kill In Co Armagh, an hour-long documentary on the E4A/HQMSU scandal and the ensuing Stalker Inquiry, from 1986. It's a hissy from-VHS copy but good enough.

Similar vein - here's Shoot To Kill, Peter Kosminsky's 3.5h drama-documentary about the same themes which he made for YTV in 1990. Ropey VHS, but it does contain half-an-hour studio discussion about the film afterwards.



I'd be interested in a decent copy of Gangsters At War, about the UDA feud of the early 00s. There's a version in three chunks, but it misses off the last 5 minutes or so, or there's the version below, which seems to have everything except the end credits, but which has terrible audio quality.

Any more suggestions (preferably actual recommendations)?

I would be particularly interested in (non-CT) stuff on collusion, SB, agents, touts etc.

 

[bi0boy]

 

[LiamO]

 

[Idris2002]

Free Derry.



Bloody Friday.

 

[DaveCinzano]

Cheers, not seen that.

 

[DaveCinzano]

Free Derry.



Bloody Friday.

Thanks also - interesting to see the Iranian take on things

 

[Casually Red]

I would be particularly interested in (non-CT) stuff on collusion, SB, agents, touts etc.

heres a small clip of the late brendan hughes explaining the reality on the ground in Belfast from the mid 80s on after Adams had gotten rid of all internal opposition and seen of the attempted Ivor Bell coup . Sadly Hughes himself was in jail when that happened and had initially backed Adams against Bell, unaware of the scale of rottenness Bell had attempted to eradicate. He soon had his eyes opened, but it was too late .



After Hughes stepped aside fearing hed gotten too close to the heart of the rot for his own good he was replaced from on high in internal security with Fred Scappittici, a British agent, naturally . And not the only one in that type of role either.

 

[DaveCinzano]

heres a small clip of the late brendan hughes explaining the reality on the ground in Belfast from the mid 80s on after Adams had gotten rid of all internal opposition and seen of the attempted Ivor Bell coup . Sadly Hughes himself was in jail when that happened and had initially backed Adams against Bell, unaware of the scale of rottenness Bell had attempted to eradicate. He soon had his eyes opened, but it was too late .



After Hughes stepped aside fearing hed gotten too close to the heart of the rot for his own good he was replaced from on high in internal security with Fred Scappittici, a British agent, naturally . And not the only one in that type of role either.

I recently watched whatever it was that extract is from - can't remember what it was now... Arrgh... After you mentioned about various things on the Gerry Adams thread it was... Now did I find it on my own or did someone recommend it?

Brain like a sieve.

 

[Casually Red]

another good one here about the Falls rd curfew and the emergence of the IRAs fearsome D Company from the lower Falls, and the ptiful state of the arsenal and manpower they had to resist the all out onslaught their district was faced with. Culminating in the eventual breaking of the armed siege by the women of west Belfast acting en masse. Some really good archive stuff in that one with Brendan Hughes speaking again .

 

[Casually Red]

I recently watched whatever it was that extract is from - can't remember what it was now... Arrgh... After you mentioned about various things on the Gerry Adams thread it was... Now did I find it on my own or did someone recommend it?

Brain like a sieve.

its from this one, voices from the grave, the collection assembled by Ed Moloney . Those slagging Moloney off for that project should consider the fact the accepted sinn fein narrative those accounts undermine is not only utter horsehit constructed around a bearded british agents ego, but destined to become the accepted historical narrative until a detailed alternative narrative emerged .

 

[Casually Red]

this BBC exercise in state propaganda from Panaroma in 1976 is interesting from an historical point of view . For example,we have from the very start the Rupert wittering away in the helicopter about his determination to prevent the dreadful sectarian killings with all the resources in his crossmaglen base . The RUC contingent in the base was commanded by sgt John Weir . The much vaunted Special Patrol Group in the district was commanded by sgt william McCaughey. Both men were highly active members of the UVF death squad that was carrying out sectarian massacres, assassinations, pub and town bombings right accross south armagh and further afield, killing over a hundred people. They in turn were being directed by British special forces slime. The bulk of the sectarian killings were being orchestrated from within the ruperts own bases, the plummy voiced prick . The very same cops you see his men escorting through the 2 towns in the report were the very ones carrying out the massacres and attempted massacres locally .

worth bearing in mind before you watch it

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Weir_(loyalist)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_McCaughey

 

[Kaka Tim]

this is an excellent doc on the battle of the bogside.

 

[DaveCinzano]

this is an excellent doc on the battle of the bogside.

Cheers

 

[DaveCinzano]

An interesting dramatic companion to this is Alan Clark's Contact:

 

[Anonymous1]

Not got round to watching this myself, had it saved on my browser for while though.

e2a: It's in 24 parts, not all long though.

 

[Casually Red]

An interesting dramatic companion to this is Alan Clark's Contact:

spooky, i was going to post that one myself . Thats a reasonably realistic dramatic depiction of that area in that period, from a squaddies point of view anyway . No moralising or derring do, just Intense boredom punctuated by extreme terror from an unseen enemy in quite lovely countryside.

 

[Casually Red]

some short clips of various bang bangs as they happen

 

[Casually Red]

Steve McQueens Hunger is starting on film 4 just now. The only film on the overall subject worth watching in my view .

 

[DaveCinzano]

Bumped, as I suspect today's news about McGuinness might trigger some memories.

 

[N_igma]

This is a good one with various people's accounts just prior to the first IRA ceasefire in 1994 I particularly like the young children's accounts from across the divide.

 

[DaveCinzano]

This is a good one with various people's accounts just prior to the first IRA ceasefire in 1994 I particularly like the young children's accounts from across the divide.

Cheers, looks interesting

 

[DaveCinzano]

A few I've seen recently...

Panorama, ‘Britain's Secret Terror Deals’, 28 May 2015.

The reporter is Darragh MacIntyre (himself's brother), and the programme focuses on the murder of Martin O'Hagan by the LVF, the Kingsmill Massacre (claimed by the ‘South Armagh Republican Action Force’/PIRA), the 1992 Sean Graham bookies shootings (UDA), and various Bran Nelson shenanigans.

It features interviews with former PSNI Ombudsman Nuala O'Loan, ex-RUC SB bigwig Raymond White, current PSNI Chief Constable George Hamilton, and various family members of victims and survivors. The likes of onetime British Army supremo General Sir John Waters and suspected LVF killer Drew King get doorstepped.

It's not the most comprehensive or detailed, but it is an interesting entry point to the subject of collusion.



Did the state collude with paramilitary killers?, Britain's Secret Terror Deals, Panorama - BBC One

Murder weapon discovered in Imperial War Museum display - BBC News

Collusion, murder and cover-up

 

[DaveCinzano]

Spotlight, ‘The Life and Death of an IRA Quartermaster’, 1998.

Story of Diarmuid O'Neill, a British-born-and-bred PIRA Volunteer shot and killed in 1996 by officers of the Met's SO19 firearms unit whilst under lengthy MI5-led surveillance in suspicious circumstances. Reporter John O'Kane won an award for this investigation.

 

[extra dry]

Elephant (1989 film) - Wikipedia

I remember seeing this, felt sorry for the people living through that time so sad so many wasted lives.

 

[DaveCinzano]

Panorama, ‘A Licence To Murder’, 2002.

A two-part investigation by John Ware, looking at collusion between British Army intelligence and Loyalists, with the focus on the FRU, Brian Nelson and Ken Barrett, covering the Pat Finucane murder and the involvement of Gordon Kerr and the Force Research Unit.

Interviews include RUC CID detective Jonty Brown and the RUC's Finucane murder team SIO Alan Simpson; Brian Nelson's sister Carole Creighton; murder victims' family members Michelle Power, Patrick Finucane, Jenny Maginn and Sean Slane; Stevens Inquiry detectives Nicholas Benwell, Sarah Bynum, Lynn Evans and Laurence Sherwood, plus Stevens himself; and recordings of Loyalist hitman Ken Barrett and Army double agent William Stobie.

Both episodes are stitched together in a single YouTube video, but there is at least one section missed out. Uncorrected transcripts are available here.

 

[DaveCinzano]

Network First, ‘Confession’, 1995.

Former PIRA Volunteer Eamon Collins talks on camera about his time as intelligence officer for the South Down brigade, the murder of Ivan Toombs, his Queen's mentor David Ewins, and his time in the Internal Security Unit. Predates his book Killing Rage.

 

[DaveCinzano]

Panorama, ‘Lethal Force’, 1991.

Reporter John Ware on purported ‘shoot to kill’ policy of British Army in late 1980s/early 1990s. Not the same issue as the RUC shoot-to-kill scandal of the early 1980s that led to the Stalker Inquiry, this includes the killing of non-paramilitary joyriders Martin Peake and Karen Reilly by Paras including Lee Clegg; the Strabane ambush by the SAS on INLA Volunteers; the shooting of UVF gunman Brian Robinson by 14 Int (Det) undercover soldiers shortly after he had murdered a Catholic civilian in the street; and the shooting dead of three petty criminals at a robbery of a bookie's in West Belfast (also by the Det).

 

[DotCommunist]

Network First, ‘Confession’, 1995.

Former PIRA Volunteer Eamon Collins talks on camera about his time as intelligence officer for the South Down brigade, the murder of Ivan Toombs, his Queen's mentor David Ewins, and his time in the Internal Security Unit. Predates his book Killing Rage.

that was interesting. I googled his name to see where he is now with his life and he isn't, died as he lived.

 

[DaveCinzano]

Panorama, ‘Who Bombed Omagh?’, 2000.

John Ware on the Real IRA and the Omagh bombing, features interviews with families of victims, survivors, RUC/PSNI Chief Constable Ronnie Flanagan,

Posits a hypothesis about how the bombing was carried out, names Colm Murphy (who is doorstepped), Oliver Traynor (ditto), Liam Campbell (ditto), Seamus Daly (ditto), and others as involved.



BBC NEWS | Programmes | Panorama | Archive | Who Bombed Omagh? October 9 2000

 

[DaveCinzano]

(BTW I'm posting these up on a non-endorsement basis, as interesting artefacts. Where possible I'll note who is involved and additional links.)