The Troubles: Ireland's Ordeal 1966–1995 and the Search for Peace

by Tim Pat Coogan

But arms were not the only objectives of the search. It was intended as a rough-handed ransack operation which would pacify the natives. By chance the curfew trapped an Italian film crew inside the cordons. Its producer, Franco Biancicci, a veteran of the Algerian war, had also been in the Kasbah immediately after General Massu had ransacked it. ‘It was the same thing exactly, ’ he told me. Doors were kicked in, furniture smashed, floorboards pulled up, wall plaster ripped off, holy pictures stamped underfoot or thrust down lavatories, mainly by members of the Scots Black Watch regiment. Above and beyond all this, there was some of the most savage fighting of the period to date. The army used their rifles and CS gas. The two IRAs fought back with guns, petrol bombs and nail bombs. Civilians used stones or their bare hands. In all, five civilians were killed, one through being run over by an army vehicle. Forty-five were injured, as were fifteen soldiers.