"But seriously" - an occasional series of articles by unknown writers

Living with the ever-present threat of terrorism

Stephen Moran


What effect have the Troubles had on you?

An American asked me that question, wondering in the midst of panic measures following the Al Qaeda attacks, what it was going to be like living with an ever-present threat of terrorism. My initial reaction was "Not much" - there has been hardly any effect on my life from the Irish Troubles.

Demos

Till this year, the only demo I had ever been on was in Dublin in 1972 a week after the shooting dead of 13 civil rights marchers by British soldiers ("Bloody Sunday.") I joined a protest march to the British Embassy. It was, of course, a very big demo and I was nowhere near the front. Some militants had come prepared and tossed a petrol bomb into the embassy, which burned down. Recently I joined another mass protest, the Stop the War demo of February 15th 2003, here in London - another once in a lifetime occasion, and just as significant. I have often thought that the Bloody Sunday shootings provided the mainspring for a conflict that was to continue for over 25 years, and now I wonder if the invasion of Iraq will not have an even more serious backlash.

Police Stops & Preventive Measures

I used to say that I had driven around London all through the attacks by the IRA and never once been stopped for questioning by police, though when I lived in Ireland I used to be stopped regularly. I have since been stopped once while driving through St James's Park, Westminster after midnight. One of the things I find worrying is that there is hardly any security at all, other than the invisible workings of the intelligence agencies. The intelligence service here is now fairly effective in preventing attacks, frequently frustrating plots by terrorists, most recently the Ricin poison making group arrested. Without their work, cities like London are completely naked to attacks by fanatics.

I was a teenager when Aer Lingus purchased two new Jumbo jets, a time when that was something noteworthy, and parked them at Dublin airport. They were worried that some terrorists would try to blow them up. One night we took a friend who was running away from home to drop him off at the airport where he was going to stay overnight. Our car was stopped on the way into the airport, and the police asked him why he was going there. This guy said, "To meet a friend." When the police asked what his friend's name was, he said "Jumbo." They were not amused.

Bombs and Backlashes

I have heard bombs go off in the distance. I heard the three pops some miles away when the bombs went off in central Dublin, killing 20 people. It was the day before a vote on the introduction of new anti-terrorist legislation, on which the parliament was split 50-50 with one more vote needed to pass the bill (setting up jury-less courts etc.) Somebody switched sides and the bill was passed. It was suspected that British Intelligence services were involved in organizing the bombing. My next door neighbour saw a body beheaded, and subsequently had a nervous breakdown.

I was in the same city block in about 1980 in London when a bomb went off in a hamburger restaurant. It had been left by the IRA in a toilet. Following a warning the place was evacuated. Around the corner where I was, we were told to keep away from the windows. We had grown used to false alarms that had been happening for weeks. It was a ploy of the terrorists to place only occasional devices and add to their economic effect by phoning multiple false warnings, which of course had to be taken seriously because of intermittent real ones.

A bomb disposal officer went in to defuse this particular device. It exploded and killed him. Everybody where I worked was shaking, because it was close to the explosion and you could feel intense fear when it went off. We didn't know at the time that somebody had been killed. After the bang, one of my colleagues came into the office where I worked, pointed at me and said, "That's your friends." I didn't say anything, but I had always opposed Sinn Féin, even arguing with them in person sometimes a little recklessly, for example when they came to our door in Dublin with their leaflets.

I heard the bang when the flyover at Staples Corner in London was blown up. It demolished a nearby B&Q hardware store too and caused months of traffic chaos while the damage was repaired. There was another bomb on the same day. After the centre of the City was devastated by a 1,000lb truck bomb, we could see the Nat West tower (the tallest building in London at the time) from where I was working. Its blinds were all flapping out of the blown windows, and it stood unused for years after. I felt another backlash when in the course of some banter about left and right wing politics, one of my colleagues gestured to the Nat West tower and said, "I suppose you approve of that?"

A bus blew up in the strand killing an IRA man carrying a bomb that went off prematurely, and seriously injuring other people. The bus was blown to bits. How anyone survived, I just don't know. It happened that one of the injured was a friend of a friend. The victim was left in a coma in hospital. Because he was Irish the tabloid newspapers assumed he must have been an accomplice and ran headlines along the lines of, "Let the Bastard Die," identifying this guy. In fact he had nothing whatsoever to do with it, just happened to be an Irish bloke on the wrong bus at the wrong time.

Big Brother and the Ring of Steel

Following the devastating truck bombs, the City "Square Mile" financial district is now surrounded by what they call the "ring of steel." There are chicanes at all entry points and police checkpoints. All cars are filmed coming and going. Additionally, because of the new Congestion Charge most of London is now observed by hundreds of cameras that take pictures of cars. Everywhere one goes in this country there are cameras following our every move. There are more here than anywhere else in the world, and they are absolutely everywhere. They have proved successful in reducing crime where they are used, so people mostly welcome them. Those who don’t, including all shades of the political spectrum are very angry about them.

All internet service providers here have to connect a special black box that copies all their messages to the intelligence service. This is part of a system called Echelon, agreed between Britain and the U.S. to help monitor electronic communications. I have heard it said that what is illegal to do in Britain is done on behalf of the Brits by the Americans and vice versa. Do you trust them?

The Getaway

The biggest effects of the present Al Qaeda scare are just worry, insecurity and fear for the future. Soundings, particularly of mothers, reveal a general anxiety for the welfare of children and future generations. It has not gone unnoticed that London has been placed squarely in the bullseye of the target for the Bin Ladens of this world. Whilst I enjoy London a lot, this present uncertainty is reminding me how much I would love to be somewhere far away from here as well. No I have not been affected much but perhaps the troubles, Irish and international, have had a bit more of an effect on me than I first thought.