.... I'm an Irish-American and a reporter. I've lived twice in Ireland for periods of more than six months and have visited Belfast almost 30 times since 1963. I'm certain that I've spent more time in Ireland, North and South, than Shirley Williams or the editorial writers of the London newspapers. And what I have seen is very simple: I've seen a state ruled by British "I've been shot at in Belfast and teargassed in Derry. I've talked to the IRA. I've looked at the British concentration camp at Long Kesh, seen British soldiers bash kids on their head and fire four-inch hard rubber bullets at crowds of women. I saw the blood on the streets of Derry after the British paratroopers fired into a crowd and killed 13 attitude to the North of Ireland is not sentimental. It is made of "The British press might thunder and say that this is not the business of America. But if Israel is our business, if Egypt is our business, if South Africa and Rhodesia are our business, if Soviet Jews are our business then Ireland is our business....
'Everybody wants the killing to stop. And there is only one way to stop it forever. Get the British out and make Ireland one country, as it was at the beginning.
Pete Hamill, New York Daily News, 1979 Belfast is filled with British soldiers in camouflage uniform. They man the check-points, stand guard at petrol stations, on roads to the airport, at the seaport, in front of the banks and the bigger shops.
Stealthily clinging to house walls, they patrol the streets keeping an eye on all pedestrains and the upper stories of apartment buildings. They are always on the alert, with their finger on the trigger. Add to this the constant drone of helicopters patrolling over the city and of the roar of the armoured vehicles riding in the streets....
'Northern Ireland is a land of total surveillance. The British Army has a computer file on practically every adult, listing facial features, date of birth, licence number, colour and make of car, even type of television and colour of the wallpaper in the home.
"This is complemented by telephone bugging and a network of paid informers. And all to keep the people in a state of constant intimidation, compel them to give up the fight for their 'Since 1169, when Henry II invaded Ireland, troops have been occupation, religion, address,