Andrew Sanders - Times of Troubles: Britains War in Northern Ireland

Times of Troubles

For Heather, with love
AS

With love to Helen, Ben, Kirsty
and the twins, David, Robbie and Julie
ISW

Times of Troubles

Britain's War in Northern Ireland

Andrew Sanders and Ian S. Wood

EDINBURGH

University Press

Andrew Sanders and Ian S. Wood, 2012

Edinburgh University Press Ltd

22 George Square, Edinburgh EH8 9LF

www.euppublishing.com

Typeset in 10/12 Goudy MT by

Servis Filmsetting Ltd, Stockport, Cheshire, and

printed and bound in Great Britain by

CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon CR0 4YY

A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 978 0 7486 4656 2 (hardback)

ISBN 978 0 7486 4655 5 (paperback)

ISBN 978 0 7486 4657 9 (webready PDF)

ISBN 978 0 7486 5513 7 (epub)

ISBN 978 0 7486 5512 0 (Amazon ebook)

The right of Andrew Sanders and Ian S. Wood to be identified
as authors of this work has been asserted in accordance with the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

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Acknowledgements

Authors of any work necessarily accrue a debt of gratitude to many different people.

We wish to thank all involved in the production of this book at Edinburgh University Press, particularly John Watson, who has been a patient and supportive editor throughout the preparation of this book and a pleasure to work with.

We are very grateful to all who agreed to be interviewed for this work: Lieutenant-General Sir Alistair Irwin, Lieutenant-General Sir Robert Richardson, Major Michael Sullivan, Dr Iain Reid, Jonathan Powell, John Kelly, Richard O'Rawe, Marian Price, Gerard Hodgins and Lieutenant-General Andrew Graham, as well as all interviewees who could not be named for reasons of personal security.

Research conducted at a variety of archives and libraries was made much easier thanks to the efforts of the staff at the National Archive at Kew, the Churchill Archive in Cambridge, the National Army Museum, the library at the National War Museum of Scotland, especially Stuart Allan, the Museum of the Parachute Regiment and Airborne Forces, the Royal Scots Museum, the National Library of Scotland, the Linen Hall Library, especially Ross Moore and Alistair Gordon at the excellent Northern Ireland Political Collection, and the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst.

We would like to thank the following people for their assistance which aided us greatly in the acquisition of materials: Aaron Edwards, whose recent concise yet comprehensive history of Operation Banner was unfortunately published too late for us to draw upon; Karen Higman; Sandy Leishman; David McCaughey; Mrs Alison Kinnen and her late husband Douglas; the Royal Scots Regimental Association (especially Colonel J. Blythe) for making available illustrations first used in the official history of the regiment; Paul Evans at the Royal Artillery Museum. Kind thanks to Francis Plaistowe for permission to cite from the memoir of his son, Michael Plaistowe, which is located in the National Army Museum.

We owe much to good friends in Belfast, Edinburgh and wider afield whose company and generous advice helped to keep us on track: Graham Walker, Richard English, Brian Barton, Hugh Jordan, Jim McDowell, John Brown, Henry Cowper, Mario Relich, Paul Addison, among many others. Particular thanks must go to those who offered us generous hospitality: Caoimhe Nic Dhibhid; Colin Reid; Shaun McKeown; Mike, Natalie, Ryan, Jake and Madeline Calo.

We are immensely grateful to J. Tyler-Copper who typed several chapters of this book and did a meticulous job of checking and editing the final draft. David Wood was also invaluable during this time. Stuart Sanders and Heather Sanders also provided much needed advice on early drafts of this book.

The Carnegie Trust for Scottish Universities provided a generous grant to help in the preparation of this book.

We would like to acknowledge the valuable internet resources available at Britain's Small Wars ( http://www.britains-smallwars.com/ ) which we have used for background information as well as where cited.

We have variously utilised Martin Melaugh's CAIN website ( http://www.cain.ulst.ac.uk ), particularly Malcolm Sutton's Database of Deaths, alongside Lost Lives for information on the victims of the troubles.

Notes

We have deliberately varied use of Londonderry and Derry throughout.

Throughout the work, we abbreviate the titles of regiments using the convention of First Battalion, The Royal Scots = 1 Royal Scots.

Abbreviations