Oct 5, 2026 · 37 min · 11 segments
Four miles south of Omagh, at the height of the Troubles, the SAS launched an ambush against an IRA unit suspected of carrying out a series of deadly attacks on soldiers. In the first episode of SAS…
Sam KileyHost
Brian RowanGuestJohnGuest[tense music] Northern Ireland, and in the streets of Belfast, British troops stand guard to keep the peace between Catholics and Protestants.
It's commonly accepted that Northern Ireland's problems are the result of its religious divisions, which are themselves embedded some 300 years back in the province's history.
But it's no longer so certain that religious hatred is the only flame that keeps Northern Ireland on the boil.
In Northern Ireland, tensions were rising after decades of political exclusion, economic inequality, and contested national identity for the Catholic community.
Civil rights protests had escalated into sectarian violence, which saw the reemergence of armed organizations like the Irish Republican Army, the IRA, and loyalist groups like the Ulster Volunteer Force, the UVF.
I spoke to SAS soldier John, it's not his real name, who was in Northern Ireland during those early days of the conflict.
I mean, wars of all n- all hues and persuasions are driven by demographics.
You know, there's hordes and hordes of young men.
There was huge unemployment out there, particularly if you were a Catholic, where you perceived housing was set against you, work was set against you, and politically you had very small, little representation.
So this sort of summer of '69, you know, on the mainland here, it's the Summer of Love.
Out in Belfast, suddenly the sort of protests that have been running for several weeks just absolutely exploded.
[crowd shouting]
It was last Thursday night that Divis Street, a Catholic pocket just west of the city center, was set alight.
That night, five people were killed and 120 injured in machine gun battles between police and gunmen.
The RUC, who were the incumbent police force there, were completely caught out by the scale of it, the size of it.
I mean, people sit in Britain, and they sort of, they'll look at the for- you know, what happened in Yugoslavia, and they'll look at Africa, and they look at the Middle East and say, "We could never do that." Believe you me, in Northern Ireland, people did the most appalling things to each other, and they're British Protestants attacked the Catholic enclaves, the Catholics attacked the Protestant enclaves.
People were burnt out their houses, their businesses were burnt down, their shops were burnt down.
[tense music] Northern Ireland, and in the streets of Belfast, British troops stand guard to keep the peace between Catholics and Protestants.
It's commonly accepted that Northern Ireland's problems are the result of its religious divisions, which are themselves embedded some 300 years back in the province's history.
But it's no longer so certain that religious hatred is the only flame that keeps Northern Ireland on the boil.
In Northern Ireland, tensions were rising after decades of political exclusion, economic inequality, and contested national identity for the Catholic community.
Civil rights protests had escalated into sectarian violence, which saw the reemergence of armed organizations like the Irish Republican Army, the IRA, and loyalist groups like the Ulster Volunteer Force, the UVF.
I spoke to SAS soldier John, it's not his real name, who was in Northern Ireland during those early days of the conflict.
I mean, wars of all n- all hues and persuasions are driven by demographics.
You know, there's hordes and hordes of young men.
There was huge unemployment out there, particularly if you were a Catholic, where you perceived housing was set against you, work was set against you, and politically you had very small, little representation.
So this sort of summer of '69, you know, on the mainland here, it's the Summer of Love.
Out in Belfast, suddenly the sort of protests that have been running for several weeks just absolutely exploded.
[crowd shouting]
It was last Thursday night that Divis Street, a Catholic pocket just west of the city center, was set alight.
That night, five people were killed and 120 injured in machine gun battles between police and gunmen.
The RUC, who were the incumbent police force there, were completely caught out by the scale of it, the size of it.
I mean, people sit in Britain, and they sort of, they'll look at the for- you know, what happened in Yugoslavia, and they'll look at Africa, and they look at the Middle East and say, "We could never do that." Believe you me, in Northern Ireland, people did the most appalling things to each other, and they're British Protestants attacked the Catholic enclaves, the Catholics attacked the Protestant enclaves.
People were burnt out their houses, their businesses were burnt down, their shops were burnt down.
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