Soon, hopefully, 'The Troubles' will be a distant memory or history for the people of Britain and Ireland. But for almost thirty years, the slaughter or war or conflict or terrorism or whatever you wish to call it left thousands dead in Northern Ireland and probably destroyed interdenominational relations for at least two or three generations. 'The Troubles I've Seen' (UTV) interviews local Ulster Television reporters who covered that period (this is the second series, the first included bigger 'name' journalist like Trevor McDonald who cut their cloth in the 1970s and 80s). It brought back a lot of the distant, half-remembered atrocities and killings that 'thetvreviewguy' had forgotten. It must be a painful series for many to take part in and watch, where the reporters talk about the toll taken on their own resources; as one observed, 'there was no such thing as counselling in those days'. Anyone over 35 will have grown up with the, at time's daily death toll ringing on the News. The generation below 25 will barely remember the violence at all. What does remain is entrenched sectarianism, hatred and tribal allegiances. So much has changed though and many of these reporters could not have envisaged the Good Friday Agreement or Sinn Fein and the DUP sharing power. But the footage of Gordon Wilson after Enniskillen or the carnage of the Gibraltar spiral of violence serve as a reminder as to how dark things seemed at the time and how peace seemed little more than a pipe dream. An important series that reminds us of 'the hand of history'.
