Despite the fact that we were in the middle of a war and the
mention of Warrenpoint can stir up memories of one of the worst atrocities of
the whole conflict, I can honestly say that I had no experience of religious
animosity in Warrenpoint. In fact one of
my good friends ‘kicked with the other foot’ as they say to describe someone
who is of a different religion. Mervyn
was a Protestant and a member of the Warrenpoint Orange Lodge, but he was one
of us, he was a normal young fellow growing up.
I can’t actually remember him chucking stones at army patrols
with us but that is not to say that he wasn’t there. Mervyn was not the only Protestant in our group. It’s very sad that in this day and age
knuckle draggers still spout the same old drivel about hating the other
side. I fear for the future of my
country. Mervyn once asked if we would
take him to an IRA funeral in Newry.
This was the sort of event that even we would stay away from because in
those days trouble was going to happen, not even at a funeral but especially at
a funeral.
Studs Morgan and myself, called so because he was very good
at Gaelic football, agreed that we would accompany Mervyn up to Newry. The graveyard was on the Warrenpoint side of
Newry so it would be quite easy for us to get there. It was quite a large funeral for a senior
member of the IRA. Thousands of people
attended as did hundreds of soldiers. We
arrived at the graveyard after the funeral procession. The graveyard was heaving with people and
they packed in tightly around the grave.
The reason for this was that the IRA colour party could come out from
the crowd, fire a volley of shots over the coffin and then disappear.
The soldiers and police on the other hand would try to take
the tricolour off the coffin especially if it carried the black gloves and
beret too. They would want to arrest the
members of the colour party and of course they would want to confiscate the
weapons used. It would be wrong to
categorise it as a game of cat and mouse, for people died and that is not a
game.
Every high building around the graveyard was covered with soldiers,
helicopters hovered above, yet the foot patrols did keep a distance. The usual people gave speeches over the grave;
it was strange to hear their actual voices for they were not allowed to speak
on the television. As the colour party
raised their weapons the helicopters pulled away and with the whole ceremony
over, the crowd turned and began to move back into Newry.
We hung back and Mervyn was not just grateful to have been at
such a historical event but to have been so close in. He asked if we could follow the crowd into
Newry for we knew that there was going to be one hell of a riot. We kept our distance but were very much aware
of the destruction and violence that was occurring two hundred yards ahead of
us. Cars were being burned and any police
or army units were being subjected to a heavy volley of bricks and bottles.
The police and army had established a line, across the road
by the Newry market. The crowd formed up
and as the troops and police began using rubber bullets and CS gas the crowd
began using paint bombs and petrol bombs.
It was quite amazing the way cars would pull up at the rear of the riot
and crate loads of petrol and paints bombs would be delivered, talk about fast
food deliveries. Mervyn wanted to get a
little closer and I can assure you that he did not want to join in the rioting,
but being so close to such an event gives you one hell of an adrenaline rush. It was tremendously exciting, in a scary
way.
We began to cross the road but stopped mid-way for we had
become aware of some loud cracks. It was
difficult with the commotion of the riot to not only establish what the sounds
were, but where they were coming from.
Two land rovers full of soldiers screaming towards us drew our attention
to the fact that this was the direction the noises had come from. The soldiers were aware of this too, for they
were trying to get away from the noise.
On top of a high building nearby were a number of IRA snipers and they
were quite happily opening up at the two land rovers. Once the proverbial penny had dropped, it
didn’t take long for us to retreat back across the road, away from the riot and
hold ourselves close against the wall.
The initial shock was over and the soldiers were beginning to organise themselves
and engage the IRA men. We watched in amazement
as a huge black soldier rammed into the wall beside us.
He looked at us and suggested that we shouldn’t really be
there, which we took as a very good recommendation and walked as fast as we
could away from the soldiers, the fire fight and the riot.
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