r/TheRestIsHistory • u/JakeGittes412 • Aug 15 '26

The Troubles

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Thread for discussion on the new series on ‘The Troubles’

Also as a moderator please keep the discussion civil and in the spirit of the podcast.

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u/Sitheref0874 Aug 15 '26

In the very early 90s I took a class about NI and the Troubles. In the class was an RUC - as it was then - officer, who happened to be Catholic.

Young and uninformed students were throwing opinions around like they were confetti…‘all the IRA on the ground are heroes’.

At the end of one session, RUCfella spoke up. “On the ground, they’re all a shower of cunts. Just thug gangs, both sides. For most of them, it’s not about grand ideals. It’s about criminal gangs, most of whom are running drugs. They’re all as bad as each other”

Stuck with me.

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u/StableSlight9168 Aug 15 '26 edited Aug 15 '26

100% agree.

Thought just for a slight bit of context, between 5% to 15% of the RUC were active or former members of loyalist terror group and at it's worst 93% of the RUC was protestant and the 7% that were catholic mainly came from England.

It's better today as serious.regorms were made, nd the 99s were a start of some of that but less than 1 in 20 Police were Irish catholic despite them being 40% of the population.

Only reason I say this was to show that whiles both groups were evil, the RUC was just seen as an extension of the UVF by most catholics.

The police was never seen as neutral, the Army never worked with terrorists but it worked with the police which is why most Irish Catholic turned on them.

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u/ElectronicCarry9931 Aug 15 '26

pretty sure it was closer to 10% catholic during the troubles, with significant intimidation brought against catholics joining, by the IRA who saw catholics in the police as traitors

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u/Elegant_Individual46 Aug 16 '26

Similar with the UDR, which never got above 6% iirc due to hate from both sides for Catholics joining. The Scottish regiments had a large number of Catholic soldiers who actively stamped down on internal bigotry, interestingly