Hi Jack, I grew up in Ireland Western Europe.

At the time there was a low level gurela war going on in the north of Ireland between the British army and the Irish Republican Army.

There were usually a few killed every day or every week, though ocasionally there were incidents where 20 or more were killed in a day. It lasted from around 1969 to about year 2000 then there was a peace agreement signed.

There was one event called Bloody Sunday when British soldiers excuted 17 unarmed civilians who had been holding a peaceful protost holding cloth painted banners.

Remember that Southern Ireland got independance from Britain around 1924 after a bloody war of independance often involving poor badly armed tennant farmers fighting pitched battles against the British landlords who were backed up by the British army and militias.

There was a lot of fear at that time in the the South during the 1970s and 80s that the British army might push south and that people would be displaced of land or houses they owned because thats what happened prior to the war of independance in the south where by the Irish farmers were displaced of their farms which were amalgamated in huge British collective farms owned by British lords who ‘endlaved’ the dispossed farmers as labours who the worked and lived under terrible conditions.

In the north Republicans rarely owned property, and mostly were not allowed to get jobs in government, ie teachers, fire men, police etc.

In effect they had bad housing and had difficulty accessing university’s and hospitals. There was very high unemployment among Republicians.

There was a sort of apartheid where by although they were allowed to vote, however the districts were carved out and adjusted by the British to insure that the British held power, this was called Jerrymandering.

There was also a lot of fear about ‘internment’ whereby the British army could arrest people on suspicion and hold them indefinitely without being charged with any crime and without having access to proper legal representatives.

It was a sort of ‘guantanam bay’.

Also a lot of people disappointed during the troubles and both sides commited terrible atrocities.

Although the troubles were often pained in by the global big media as being a partly religions or cultural divide, it was also about rich powerful verses poor alienated.  Whereby there were rich on both sides and poor on both sides. However in some cases the rich on both sides went to the opera together while the poor on both sides killed each other.

Also there was a lot of fear and unknown as well as contradictions.

The US was a close ally of the UK during the cold war, therefore the US was feared as a posible threat that could assist the British in bombing the south of Ireland.

Irionically during those years many Southern Republican orientated people immigrated to both Britain and the US to work and avoid the troubles at home and many of them married British and Americans and done well. Many worked in Chicago, New York and Boston in construction, fire services and police. Many of those fire men killed in 911 were sons or grandsons of Irish immigrants who left Ireland to flee the British army and the troubles.

There used to be drills in the schools to prepare us for if in the event of a British-US air raid bombing.

Also during the second world war Ireland stayed neutral.

Many Irish hoped Germany would win, many other Irish joined the allies to fight against Germany. After the war public opinion went against Germany.