1982 Pop Goes Northern Ireland

MUSIC PLAYS

DISCORDANT CHORDS

Well, Mr Mains, who was a warden at the time,

unfortunately took a lot of advantage, of me, anyhow,

and used to get me to indulge in sexual activities,

to which I was very objectionable,

but felt under pressure to cooperate with him.

He knew everybody in the government departments, and...

he just had a way with people.

MUSIC: Maid Of Orleans by Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark

There is a saying in Northern Ireland

that everybody refers to somebody else as "yer man",

and I believe that this will be accepted

by all the people of Northern Ireland as being us.

I think he represents all of us.

MUSIC: Private Investigations by Dire Straits

I approached Dr Paisley on at least seven occasions.

I asked him time and time again what he intended to do about this.

My concern all along

was very much for the fact

that there were young boys under the threat of this man's corruption.

I maintain that she never mentioned

Mr McGrath's employment in Kincora to me.

-REPORTER:

-It appears that even the Army knew about William McGrath,

one of the convicted men, who was supposedly the leader

of an extreme Protestant group called Tara.

But they might have had their own reasons

for keeping quiet about his homosexuality.

One rumour which has been rife for some years in Loyalist circles

is that McGrath was possibly

passing information to the Army.

If that was the case,

then there is the possibility

that the Army knew exactly what McGrath was up to,

but they weren't going to tell the police,

because they didn't want to blow McGrath

and they wanted to keep their valuable informer.

We were not the kind of inquiry that could pursue criminal investigation,

and when it became apparent

there was still a considerable criminal element to be investigated,

we told the chairman that we didn't think the inquiry

could continue in that shape.

Anything in the automobile business is a high risk,

unless you have the billion a year that the British government

is willing to pour into Leyland behind you.

MUSIC: Poison Arrow by ABC

-What's the feeling inside?

-Looks like the factory's shutting.

A total disaster for Northern Ireland, completely.

There's just no work at all available,

and some of the fellas had big mortgages,

they'll not be able to pay it, you know.

People will be in poverty, that's the only way to put it.

They'll be on the dole and assistance and stuff like that.

I'm looking forward to four-and-a-half to five years

of stable government in the new dawn.

MUSIC: I Will Sing Of My Redeemer

Let's really hear you sing this lovely old song of praise!

# I will sing of my redeemer... #

MUSIC: Hungry Like The Wolf by Duran Duran

..Know what I do for wee Willie?

There are allegations that it's been a very dirty campaign.

It was the most filthy campaign that I have ever been in

since the Unionist Party printed photographs of Hitler

and put them over all my posters in North Antrim.

MUSIC: Come On Eileen by Dexy's Midnight Runners

The first thing is that Britain be encouraged to seek more positively

and persuade more actively a change in attitudes and outlooks

which would pave the way for unity

and so enable her final withdrawal from Ireland

to take place with honour and dignity.

MUSIC: Save A Prayer by Duran Duran

I just think that the time has come when the people of Northern Ireland

are going to wish to come together, certainly in a forum,

a political forum to start with, and then move on from that.

This initiative has more to do with the political future of James Prior

than it has with the political future

of the people of Northern Ireland.

People who were encouraged to go for devolution, pressed for devolution,

have been, in fact, double-crossed by the government.

They've been cheated,

because they've been given not devolved government,

but a talking shop elected forum

and an elected Assembly with absolutely no power.

MUSIC: Eye Of The Tiger by Survivor

Mr Prior, it's been suggested that he has raised £15 million.

Is that going to be enough, and can you match that?

No, this is a matter for Mr DeLorean to decide, not for me.

So there is no more government money?

There is no more government money.

-Fantastic.

-CHEERING

And the Embassy World Snooker champion for 1982

is Alex "Hurricane" Higgins.

As BBC cameras filmed the ceremony on a rooftop nearby,

the car bomb went off.

EXPLOSION

I noticed that the fans here have plenty of Ulster flags.

We've heard reports that some of the soccer programmes over there

have got tricolours on them.

You're hardly likely to buy any of the programmes.

I don't think we'll worry about tricolours or the Northern Ireland flag.

We're just going over for the football.

We'll never worry about anything political.

MUSIC: Yer Man by Dana & 1982 Northern Ireland World Cup Squad

Gerry Armstrong, what a worker he is.

Striding away there, with Hamilton to his right.

Norman Whiteside up on the far side of the area.

Still Billy Hamilton. He's gone past Tendillo.

Northern Ireland have scored through Gerry Armstrong!

THEY CHEER

What were those last 45 minutes like for you on the pitch?

It dragged, I'm telling you.

When Mal went off, it absolutely dragged.

We had to bring Tommy Cassidy in for McIlroy.

We had to bring Sammy Nelson into a semi-left-half position,

because young Norman was running out of energy.

The skipper here kept going!

Gerry was marvellous, a lovely goal.

Pat was super in goal. They all did marvellous.

Oh, and Jimmy Nicholl's in here.

Right across...

It's a goal!

Naturally, as an Ulsterman, one welcomes the fact

that the team has done so well in the competition so far.

They've enjoyed considerable success

and they brought great credit to the province, and we welcome that.

But we do deeply regret the fact

that the next game is being played on the Lord's day.

In a country normally divided by political and religious differences,

the team's success has been cheered on

by people on both sides of the sectarian divide.

It's given us something to be proud of.

The Troubles, like, you know,

and then Northern Ireland qualifying for Spain,

going to the quarterfinals.

BAND PLAYS: Y Viva Espana

MUSIC: No by The Associates

-REPORTER:

-A grandiose setting for an Assembly

with less power than a parish council.

There's loving care

for this mothballed monument to Loyalist supremacy,

but no such help for the Prior initiative itself,

now given the kiss of death

by the SDLP's vow never to sit in Stormont again.

It's a recipe for a dangerous talking shop.

It will fail in the way everything else failed.

We told him this, by the way, before he published his proposals.

They're not holding a veto over the Assembly.

What they would be holding under those circumstances

is a veto over cross-community support

leading to a devolved government.

Does that mean, then, that Sinn Fein

are definitely going to contest these elections?

Yes, we intend to contest the Assembly elections

and we intend, when elected, to abstain from those seats.

MUSIC: Town Called Malice by The Jam

Well, after four days,

I began to get scared of being arrested, myself, by the RUC,

so I went to stay with friends.

But your mother did make an appeal for you to get in touch with her.

-She was dreadfully worried, wasn't she?

-I wrote to her.

Have you been in touch with her now?

No comment.

This Assembly can be the start of the open doors of Stormont

and the start of a long slog back

to peace, prosperity and progress.

If you want your new Assembly to work properly,

vote Alliance and make it work.

If this doesn't work, what Secretary of State, what government,

would consider any new initiative in Northern Ireland

in the foreseeable future? The answer is, nobody would.

REPORTER: In the Catholic community, a struggle between the SDLP

and the Provisional IRA's political friend, Sinn Fein.

Amid the graceless concrete of the Divis flats,

Sinn Feiners are on safe territory.

The IRA go on murdering innocent people.

Sinn Feiners defend this carnage as necessary to get the Brits out.

Gerry Adams is behind

this "ballot box in one hand, rifle in the other" paradox.

What about the violence within the election campaign itself?

-For instance...

-There's violence, there.

That's violence. There's armed men.

How would you like armed men like that to walk up your street?

-But surely that's a routine patrol?

-It's an armed man.

How would you like an armed man to walk up your street?

But they would represent, they would argue, the forces of law and order.

How would you like... your viewers, now,

like me to walk up their street with a rifle over my shoulder

and have the right to say, "What's your name? What's your address?

"I'm bringing you to the barracks. Strip off"? Right?

MUSIC: Mad World by Tears For Fears

EXPLOSION

We challenged James Prior to stand in West Belfast

on the basis of British guns in Ireland, and he refused to do so.

The media can make any interpretation they want

of our victory in West Belfast.

I don't see it as a personal victory.

I see it as a victory for the Republican struggle,

not as a personal victory for me.

I'm only an individual

who is representing Sinn Fein in this election.

They're not just involved in violence and murder,

but they're actively involved in both.

Well, Mr Rees should name names.

Mr Rees is a failed politician.

He's an idiot who came to this country

and left this country a failure.

To have a gun makes you a strong man.

To be in an organisation that has a gun on the one hand

and also elected on the other is a most significant step.

Democracy is something

that the Northern Irish appreciate and understand

and they haven't had it for a number of years in a true form,

and that's what I'm trying to get back to.

It'll take time, but to go on just as we are was a policy of despair.

MUSIC: Winter Kills by Yazoo

REPORTER: In a call to Belfast newsroom,

a man said Mr Donegan's life is in the IRA's hands.

If they murder the UDR sergeant, kidnapped in South Armagh,

then Mr Donegan will die, too.

I hope that if Mr Cochrane's still alive and it is my daddy who's dead,

they'll still release him,

because I'm sure Mrs Cochrane is very upset

hearing this news as well as we are.

MUSIC: House Of Fun by Madness

MUSIC: Shipbuilding by Elvis Costello & The Attractions

REPORTER: All the men were IRA suspects,

and two were on the run from the police

and had been in trouble before.

No weapons were found in the car.

This fact and the hail of police bullets in which the men died

has angered some nationalist politicians who want an inquiry.

No evidence whatsoever of minimum force being used to apprehend them,

yet they were shot, riddled with bullets, at very, very close range.

INDISTINCT

You're not getting any footage.

MUSIC: - I Can't Go For That (No Can Do) by Daryl Hall & John Oates

Most Unionists, at one and the same breath,

are glad to see Haughey away because of what he is,

but regret that he's away because he was a very easy target to identify

and a bogeyman whom we could point out to our electorate.

It's a bit more difficult to do that with Garret FitzGerald.

-Why?

-Because...

FitzGerald is the acceptable face of republicanism,

the soft voice, soft sell, but perhaps much more dangerous.

We've been told by British politicians for the last ten years

that men of violence have no support in the local community.

Now we're told that these people who have won election should be ignored.

I think that's nonsense.

MUSIC: Theme from Harry's Game by Clannad

Your sister was hurt in the bomb, I believe?

She was indeed, yes. At the minute, she's in intensive care.

We are trying to return Northern Ireland

to normality,

and how can you keep troops bottled up the whole time,

and civilians bottled up the whole time?

We're appalled and horrified at the murders in Ballykelly.

We're determined to try and see that anything we can do

to bring ahead the date when we can see peace in Ireland

and peace on the streets of London, we will do.

And I can't see any way that this government

is going to achieve peace by refusing to talk

to the different parties involved in Northern Ireland.

MUSIC: A Little Peace by Nicole

# ..A little hoping A little praying

# For our tomorrow, a little peace

# I feel I'm a leaf... #