Former soldiers have marched to remember the British military's 38-year operation in the once-troubled province. Hundreds of troops were killed trying to maintain order in one of the army's darkest chapters.
Image: picture-alliance/empics/N. Carson
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Hundreds of British ex-military personnel on Saturday took part in the 50th anniversary commemoration of the British army's deployment to Northern Ireland.
A parade, which included former members of the elite airborne Parachute Regiment and the Royal Engineers, took place in the city of Lisburn, southwest of Belfast.
Organizers said the focus of the parade was to remember the 722 soldiers who lost their lives during what became the British military's longest ever deployment.
Northern Ireland's former first minister Arlene Foster and widows of the bereaved were among those in attendance.
Northern Ireland: New scars in Derry, Londonderry after journalist's murder
Since the murder of investigative journalist Lyra McKee, the Northern Irish border city of Derry, Londonderry has been more on edge than usual. Threatening terrorist graffiti litters the estate where McKee was shot dead.
Image: DW/M. Hallam
Threats in broad daylight
Imitation road signs on the Creggan Estate in Derry, Londonderry tell locals in no uncertain terms that they should not cooperate with police in the aftermath of Lyra McKee's murder. This image of a rat with a gun's crosshairs trained on it is captioned "Informers will be shot," and signed "IRA," in reference to the Irish Republican Army terror group.
Image: DW/M. Hallam
Some cleanup efforts, but messages keep coming
Cleanup efforts have already taken place in the area: The white walls of the building opposite have a fresh coat of paint to cover extreme nationalist graffiti. But as quickly as the threats are cleared, new ones appear. Local police have said that it's not their responsibility to clear away such material, possibly suspecting that their presence for this task could do more harm than good.
Image: DW/M. Hallam
Locals leave it alone
In the immediate aftermath of the April riots on Creggan Estate, when Lyra McKee was shot while observing the unrest near a police 4x4 vehicle, messages of solidarity were posted and pro-IRA graffiti was altered to send messages of peace instead. But eventually, ordinary people's defiance wanes. This sign warns against talking to the RUC (Royal Ulster Constabulary, Northern Ireland's police).
Image: DW/M. Hallam
More permanent signs of strife
On the same street, just across the road from the mock road signs, the local car wash carries a large poster calling for the release of nationalist or republican prisoners arrested by Northern Irish authorities. Many houses are decorated in similar ways in the area. Irish flags are another common sight.
Image: DW/M. Hallam
Cemetery sentry
A short walk away, the picturesque Creggan Parish Church graveyard peers down on the estuary and the city below. Most of the graves belong to ordinary people, but paramilitary monuments to former members of the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) — an Irish republican paramilitary group formed during Ireland's "Troubles" — also take pride of place at the burial site.
Image: DW/M. Hallam
'Sunday, Bloody Sunday'
Creggan Estate is just up the hill from the 1972 "Bloody Sunday" (or "Bogside Massacre") memorial, near Derry's "Peace Wall" separating the nationalist, largely Catholic population from the loyalist, majority Protestant part of the city. British soldiers shot 28 unarmed civilians at what began as a protest. Thirteen died outright, another later of his wounds. Seven were 21 or younger.
Image: DW/M. Hallam
'The trench is dug within our hearts'
The memorial is regularly tended to and visited. Catholic crucifixes are a common sight, with the Irish nationalist cause intertwined with Catholicism.
Image: DW/M. Hallam
Walled border city on NI's northwestern tip
Derry's name was officially given the prefix "London" in 1613. Its city council failed in a 2007 court bid to rename it Derry on the maps. Now with a majority republican, Catholic population, Northern Ireland's second-largest city has immense historical significance to both sides. The Battle of Bogside, a 1969 communal riot, is broadly seen as the start of the "Troubles" of the late 20th century.
Image: DW
Derry, Londonderry — a flashpoint for centuries
Free Derry Corner marks the entry to the nationalist, predominantly Catholic part of the city, including Creggan. The entire area is awash with murals, memorials and sometimes less tasteful messages. Derry, Londonderry is now majority nationalist and Catholic. But the 1689 Siege of Derry was also a key event in the revolution that overthrew the last Catholic king of England, James II.
Image: DW/M. Hallam
'Not In Our Name'
In the immediate aftermath of McKee's murder, the entry was repainted in her honor. It has since been restored to usual.
Image: picture-alliance/J. Boland
Other public resistance
Another photo taken in April, soon after McKee's death, when locals were unwilling to let terrorist messages stand. A local primary school is nearby.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/P. Faith
Authorities working overtime
This vacant building on Bogside near the Peace Wall was the proposed site of an unsanctioned protest. Local kids had piled tires high at this site, planning what they were calling the 2019 Bogside Bonfire. After public pressure, and failed attempts by the nationalist Sinn Fein political party to dissuade the children, authorities cleared out the inflammable material on August 1.
Image: DW/M. Hallam
Home security
Barbed wire and sharp anti-climbing spikes on gates are not unusual forms of home security in parts of the city. Businesses tend to be especially well-fortified.
Image: DW/M. Hallam
Tourist attraction
Visitors can tour the Free Derry area of the city. Local guides take people on foot, while taxi drivers also offer personal tours. There's also a Museum of Free Derry. Many of the walls are adorned with murals, such as this one picturing a home raid by the military.
Image: DW/M. Hallam
Brexit a la Bogside
One new placard near Free Derry Corner has a distinct Brexit flavor. "Hard Border, Soft Border, No Border, #IrishUnityNow," it reads. In the background, on the back of a road sign, you can also make out the graffiti "RIRA," short for "Real Irish Republican Army," one of the splinter groups (also known as the New IRA) that rejected the IRA's cease-fire in 1997 ahead of the Good Friday Agreement.
Image: DW/M. Hallam
McKee's love letter to the city
On the other side of town, near the train station, a bright blue poster carries a quote from Lyra McKee. McKee's book, Angels with Blue Faces, was published posthumously this past week. It's the upshot of a five-year investigation by McKee into the IRA's 1981 murders of Ulster Unionist (or British loyalist) MP Robert Bradford and another man, Kenneth Campbell.
Image: DW/M. Hallam
Building bridges
Despite the continued troubles in places like Creggan, or the permanent red-white-and-blue (UK flag colors) bunting on show in loyalist parts of town like Bonds Street, much of Derry, Londonderry has been transformed in recent years. One unmissable feature of this, straddling the estuary on which the city was built, is the Peace Bridge. The plaque also notes that it was funded by the EU.
Image: DW/M. Hallam
Peace Flame
Derry's Peace Flame, near the waterfront and the Peace Bridge, was lit by children from both communities in 2013, ahead of a speech by Martin Luther King Jr. Like much of the city center, it symbolizes the progress made — even in Derry, Londonderry — over the past two decades in Northern Ireland. That said, vandals did target it 2016, while in 2017, a technical fault put out the fire.
Image: DW/M. Hallam
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Security stepped up
Saturday's march was held under tight security amid continuing bitterness over the British army's role in the so-called Troubles in Northern Ireland, three decades of sectarian unrest between Catholics and Protestants.
Soldiers were first deployed to the British territory in August 1969 under Operation Banner. Initially dispatched for a short time to maintain order following the break-out of riots in the cities of Londonderry, Newry and Belfast, the army's numbers quickly swelled.
By 2007 when the last troops were pulled out, some 300,000 British soldiers had served in the province.
Image: picture-alliance/empics/N. Carson
Their role, to assert the authority of the British government, was initially welcomed by both sides. But the army quickly became embroiled in some of the darkest hours of the Troubles, and their presence fueled the rise of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA).
The IRA, which sought the reunification of both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland in the south, waged a guerilla campaign against British rule. IRA terrorists staged attacks in Ulster, the British mainland, and even against British army installations in the then West Germany.
Favoritism set back peace hopes
The British army was widely seen as biased towards Catholics, and clashes between soldiers and Catholic residents were commonplace.
The British army and local police were eventually blamed for about 10% of all the 3,532 deaths during the Troubles, which ended with the signing of 1998 Good Friday Agreement.
However, fierce debate continues over whether British soldiers should be prosecuted for alleged crimes committed during the conflict.
One significant incident, known as Bloody Sunday, saw British soldiers open fire on a Catholic civil rights march in Londonderry, killing or wounding 29 unarmed civilians.
After a long campaign for justice by the families, prosecutors earlier this year announced that one soldier will stand trial for murder in September over the massacre.
The decision infuriated supporters of Britain's military intervention, who insist republican paramilitaries were responsible for the overwhelming majority of killings during the Troubles.
Some British MPs have called for an amnesty for soldiers who served in Northern Ireland, in the same way 500 republican and loyalist paramilitaries were released from prison early when the conflict ended.
