Making Sense of the Troubles: A History of the Northern Ireland Conflict

by David McKittrick

The army took the straightforward position that their job was to combat terrorism and not to curb street protests, an approach outlined years later in an interview by the late General Sir Frank King, who was then General Officer Commanding of troops in Northern Ireland. He related: When the strike started I remember having a conference and deciding not to get mixed up in it. What amazed us at the time was that we never had any aggro at all with the strikers. They never once stopped an army vehicle – as far as we were concerned it was almost as if the strike was not on at all. Dealing with intimidation was a police job. The fact that the RUC didn’t do too much about it was no concern of ours. We were angry at the time but it wasn’t our job. If Rees had ordered us to move against the barricades we would have said, ‘With great respect, this is a job for the police. We will assist them if you wish, but it’s not terrorism.’ During the strike there was, in fact, a bombing attack which claimed more lives than almost any other single incident in the troubles, but it took place not in the north but south of the border. This was what came to be known as the Dublin and Monaghan bombings, which on the third day of the strike killed twenty-five people in Dublin and a further seven in the border town of Monaghan. Three separate car bombs went off without warning in Dublin, causing carnage during the evening rush hour.