Once Upon a Time in Northern Ireland

I very much enjoyed this series.

I remember as a child watching the nightly news reports on the conflict and growing up in England, how we were targets for the IRA.

Many British cities were targeted by the IRA, including my own, in the Birmingham pub bombings.

The participants interviewed provided their view on events in Northern Ireland. Recollections from UDA, IRA, UFF and members of the British army, amongst others, are provided.

I felt their views came across as honest. There are many harrowing recollections of family members murdered by different factions and how they themselves took part in murder and bombings.

It also shows how people can change and how the Irish population were eventually ground down by the whole thing. Thankfully, the peace process was eventually achieved.

The conflict will stay in my memory as a horrible dirty war, with atrocities carried out by all sides, and for what?

I was born in the 70s and grew up as a child in the 80s in the United States. I am an American of primarily Northern Irish (and British) ancestry, and when hearing news stories about bombings and violence I remember thinking how horrible these people who could have easily been my family if they had stayed. But I was a kid it was across the pond so whatever so I forgot five minutes after heading the news story.

I thought the approach to the film, a 5 part series of slow interviews, was a snooze fest at first. But as you watch the series, you realize how the Troubles went from isolated events that didn't register to families and communities being torn apart. It really builds and drives home the point that these were just ordinary people.

Really enjoyed this and learned a lot.

I was growing up during the time of The Troubles, but I live in America, and I am not Irish, so while I was aware of all of this going on, the immediacy was never there. Also, being an American, there are not a lot of things out there to watch and learn more about The Troubles. Maybe this documentary just barely scratches the surface for some, but for me, it was a very educational experience.

As others have noted, I was also taken aback (but in a good way) at the rawness, authenticity, honesty and the ability to self-reflect of most of the people in this documentary, both Catholics and Protestants alike who discussed their experiences. To me, this was as balanced and down-the-middle as humanly possible, and I also appreciated that very much.

This is one of the best documentaries I have seen on just about any subject. However, I know this subject well, so I can confirm the stories are true. They are told from the perspective of those who experienced the events, and told with incredible honesty. Even when I disagreed fundamentally with the perspective, I still found myself convinced of the honesty of the storyteller.

My only niggling concern was the lack of a detailed explanation on how Northern Ireland came about - British imperialism. The UK is to Ireland what Russia is to the Ukraine...400 years after the invasion.

To this day England does not understand Ireland. To this day England has a sense of right to be in a country not made by human maps, but by geography itself - it is a separate island, with a native people. In this documentary the Irish are still being referred to as 'terrorists' by the same people who are currently supplying ammunition to the Ukrainian fight for sovereignty. Contradiction???

Some may argue, that the "troubles" (too trivial a term for the "Horrors" they were) are past history, and to let it rest.

No.

You can learn from history, and hopefully avoid a repeat of it. (sadly due to human nature a faint hope).

This series examined the history of people who were involved in, (and those not directly involved), who suffered as a result, through absolutely riveting interviews interspersed with well selected news items. The interviewees came across as being totally truthful with very little disingenuity. (In a very few areas I caught a whiff of BS)

My background covers both sides involved, so a lot of the material was familiar to me. I do have an opinion on the root causes of the problem which allowed the "Horrors" to escalate, so perhaps at the start was viewing it in a slightly partisan way, but having watched this it's made it even clearer that no side "won". Everyone lost. Bravo to the team who made it.