BBC - International Terrorism (2008) Part 3 The IRA

International Terrorism: The Global War on Terror

The terrorist is by no means a new actor on the world stage. However, thanks to startling developments in military and communications technology, this perennial threat to freedom and security has taken a quantum leap forward during the past thirty years. In many cases, these vicious and determined men and women have supplanted nation states on the globe's “most wanted” list! This extraordinary 26-episode series provides a comprehensive look at these modern masters of political murder and extortion. From the I.R.A. to al-Qaeda, Global Terror runs the gamut of groups that have pledged themselves to destroy the stability that we cling to so tenuously—examining their goals, their methods and their terrifying prospects for success!

Part 3: The IRA

Ireland was Britain’s oldest colony and, for hundreds of years, ideas of Irish Nationalism simmered under the surface of the Empire’s calm. After the Easter Rising and the establishment of Home Rule for the Republic of Eire, discontent continued in the Northern provinces, where the Catholics were in a minority and discriminated against both politically and in ordinary life. In the mid-1960s, discontent erupted into violence and the Irish Republican Army began a terror campaign which finally resulted in the British Army being called out onto the streets of Belfast. The ‘Troubles’, as they became known, gave rise to a savage form of urban warfare, typified by indiscriminate car bombings, tit-for-tat sectarian shootings and spectacular bomb outrages on the British mainland.

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