The Troubles

[King Timmy]

OOC: Thread is closed to me and Zoot. Rest of you can have responses only, no actions.

[b]Location:[/b] Derry, Ireland
[b]Time:[/b] 09:07
[b]Date:[/b] 27/04/20XX

[center][img]http://img692.imageshack.us/img692/4503/lolira.jpg [/img][/center]

A lone gunman walked in front of the camera which had already been set up in a grave yard where many former IRA members were buried. He began to speak.

"You're !@#$ting me, is it an? Alrite then, less get her staared then shall wuh. Ohvur tha last few wee days thur ya mighta noticed a wee bit ah bother there with yer wee soldiers an all gettin attacked an what not like. We are tha Irish Repblican Army an wha nah are'n we like, an unless yous wahn more troops getting the !@#$ knocked clean outta them an that, yous better get the $%&@ out of Ireland. Otherwise, me an all mah bruhrs an wha nah are gonna keep attackin yous like, are'n wuh like! So consider this yur final warnin like ya know? Any troops still in Ireland wiffin tweny fower ours are gonna be subdjected to attacks and the like."

And with that he retreated to the car that was awaiting him. His name was Sean Bean, the current leader of the IRA in Ireland. He meant every word he said. Until there were no troops in Ireland they would be attacked by the men that had pledged allegiance to the green white and gold.

OOC: If you read it like it is should sound like a Northern accent, misspelling is intentional :V

[King Timmy]

[b]Location:[/b] Antrim, Ireland
[b]Time:[/b] 09:15
[b]Date:[/b] 28/04/20XX

Some senior members were meeting at an undisclosed location in Antrim. Their discussion would lay out their plans try try and rid Ireland of the occupying soldiers.

Sean Miller was first to speak, "Sean wuv given em tweny fower ours like, are wuh gunna do summfin about it ur wah?" The Sean he was addressing was Sean Bean, the man in charge of the IRA.

"Well as fahr as I can see, thu havun dun a fing abou it yet, so at means wur gunna gotta do summfin about it duunit like. So mah idea is tha wuh cun keep an dooin wha wuv been dooin since 1912. Takin tha fight right to the British an wha nah. Sound good Sean?"

"Aye Sean, sounds good tuh me like. Wadda bout you Sean, wadda ya fink?"

Sean Penn was also in attendance, "Aye sounds gud tuh me like too so it does so it does, ya know like?"

Bean responded, "Aye, I know like, ya know?"

"Aye, I do like. So tha's it duhcided then is it?" replied Miller.

"Aye, tha's it duhcided then. Wull reconveen till tommarah then, so we will so we will."

"Sounds gud tuh me. Till Tommarah gentlemen."

They all rose from their seats, left the building and headed to the nearest bar. It was after 9 a.m. after all, a bit late for any Irishman but they could easily make up for missing the last hour in the bar.

Edited April 27, 2011 by King Timmy

[Zoot Zoot]

[b]Official Statement from the UK[/b]

The United Kingdom will not be bullied by a paramilitary organisation. Further attacks against British forces will be responded with attacks against IRA personnel. The IRA has a frther 24 hours to disarm and accept the pardon offered by the Crown in exchange for peace talks.

Ireland will be free from the British Crown, as per the Windsor Doctrine so long as it is through diplomacy and peaceful means.

[Padraig Rua]

[b]Official Announcement from Prussia[/b]

The Prussian Government has learned of the return of the IRA in Ireland. We have no sympathy for these terrorists and we offer full support to the United Kingdom. We have full confidence that the British Government can and will defeat these terrorists.

[Manetheren]

OOC: That sure is an interesting rendition of a Ulster accent. Throw in a few more "likes" and "ehs" and you'll have a good Cork one though

IC:

[b]Classified[/b]

The Transvaal Security Agency, after briefing the Staatspresident on the return of sectarian struggles in Ireland, received permission to attempt to contact the IRA, provide weapons, training and possibly covert operatives to assist in the overthrow of British authority in Ireland. Although anti-English Afrikaners have long held a dominant position in the defense establishment of Transvaal, the addition of former Tahoan officers to the military, intelligence community and upper level government catalyzed support for direct action.

[Zoot Zoot]

OOC
Closed Thread Mudd, public responses only, no intervention in any way mate.

Also, will get a post up today/tonight.

[King Timmy]

[quote][font="Lucida Console"][b]*** OFFICIAL PRERECORDED STATEMENT FROM THE IRA ***[/b]

There will be no surrender. We will never give up our arms. The politicians might try to beg you to relinquish control, but we will never enter into talks with the British who constantly oppress the freedom of Ireland.

Your support of British oppression will be your downfall. It should be noted that any nation that assists or is allied to the British government shall be considered a valid target for attacks.

We seek to end the British tyranny that has torn Ireland apart in the past. Unless something can be done, we fear it will happen again. This is what we fight for, a free unified Ireland. An Ireland that does not bow to the will of the British government which time and time again proves it is unable to give Ireland a true Irish government.

We do not fear you. You cannot defeat us.

[b]*** END TRANSMISSION ***
[/b][/font][/quote]

Meanwhile at the Palace Barracks, Holywood, a car was left sitting outside the main gate of the base. At the PSNI station in Lurgan another car was sitting outside the gate. Again, in Newry outside the courthouse a car had been left sitting. Outside Royal Belfast Academical Institution, a grammar school with over 1000 pupils, a similar car had been left. The cars all had one thing in common. In their boots there was a rather large bomb, designed to kill anyone within around one hundred meters.

A telephone call was made from a remote pay phone in east Belfast to the PSNI headquarters. Connor Macalindin was the man making the telephone call. As it was picked up he did not wait for them to say anything.

"Four bombs. Lurgan, Belfast, Newry and Holywood. You have five minutes."

And people said the IRA were impolite. No Taliban or Al Qaeda ever bothered to let anyone know where their bombs were. None the less the stage was set, the time was now. It was now 3:27, in three minutes time children would be leaving schools.

Edited April 28, 2011 by King Timmy

[Zoot Zoot]

The Palace barracks was home to the Royal Irish Guards Mechanised Regiment. Guards on the gates had watched a man leave the car outside the gates before walking off. They thought nothing of it until the man didnt return after several hours. This was a standard tactic of 1980's IRA. The Guards called a general alarm from the gatehouse, alerting the garrison and warned them to stay away from the front gates. The Regiments bomb disposal team donned their suits and slowly approached the vehicle. Popping the boot open both soldiers just sort of stiffened up before breathing out really, really slowly, almost as if they were scared to breath incase it detonated the sheer ammount of explosive in the car. More than enough to vapourise them, and most of the front gates...including the gatehouse. It was 3:12 in the afternoon. Carefully following the wires and ensuring it wouldnt simply blow up, it was determined to be a timed explosive, though when it was meant to explode was a mystery. At 3:25 it was disarmed and made safe, though it would be dismantled completly before being destroyed in a controlled set of explosions on the base.

The PSNI station recieved the phonecall at 3:27 and by 3:28 it was sending messages to all the schools in Belfast, including the town center to evacuate or to get all the children onto the fields, like a fire drill. 3:29 saw the fire alarms ringing throughout the city as people raced to get out of the city and the schools. Belfast Grammar was no exception but it was too late. The car exploded with such force is shattered all the windows in its immediate area causing glass and brickwork to reign down on the pupils as they fled causing injuries ranging from very minor, to very serious. Fourteen children were killed outright whilst another thirty seven were injured.

The bomb at the Newry Courthouse detonated and killed a passing patrol of six British Paratroopers who hadn't recived the new patrol vehicle aswell as four policemen having a smoke outside the courts. The damage was minimal to the building itself apart from almost all the glass breaking and a small fire which broke out due to burninghot shrapnel blasting through a window, a secretary and burying itself against a notice board.

The Lurgan police station didnt stand a chance and was brought to a smoking heap of debris. Whilst the building was only filled with desk jockies and criminals, the street outside the station was now littered with bodyparts from passing civilians and four police officers.

[Zoot Zoot]

The latest attacks was a rejection of the proposed peace talks put forward by the Crown in an effort to end the conflict peacefully and so the British Commanders in Ireland stepped up their efforts to eradicate the IRA or force them into a position of surrender. Road checkpoints were placed on all roads leading into and out of the major cities of Ireland, usually guarded by between six and twelve soldiers depending on their vehicle. Most of their snatch land rovers and other none tracked armoured vehicles had been removed from the theatre and replaced with the Armies new armoured recon jeep or ARJ for short. Fitted with STANAG 4569 Level 1-4 armour, it was highly resistant to IED's and other small explosives. On its roof was a Remote Weapons System module. This enabled a few men to stay safe inside the jeep and man the turret without fear of being killed or injured. Another two vehicles which were seen alot on the roads of Ireland were the Armoured Fast Attack Vehicle or AFAV for short. Slightly bigger inside, the AFAV had STANAG 4569 Level 1-5 armour, which gave it an excellent resistance to most dissident held weaponry, and also came with a RWSM.

The ARJ and AFAV's were used mainly in towns and cities, with some being posted in large villages. Out in the rural areas of Ireland the Saxon Mk2 Armoured Personel Carrier was the most seen vehicle on the roads. Fitted with Chobam MK3 heavy Armour and a RWSM, it was the strongest none tracked vehicle in the British Army, able to carry up to twelve soldiers. Moreover its internal electronics were connected to UAV's and Satellites overhead for observation of a wider area.

On large hills overlooking the approaches to settlements, large heavily armoured watchtowers were constructed to look out over the land and observe the movements of the people. The towers usually consisted of several snipers, two heavy machineguns and a few riflemen, but they were just precautionary measures.
Twelve man patrols would regularly walk around the places of dissidant activity, talking to the locals to get information, nothing coercive, but more of a curious manner, that and mainly just looking out for their own arse.

In Dublin and Ireland, MI5 worked round the clock with the PSNI and UVF to locate possible IRA members and work to prevent more attacks. Using UAV footage and satellite images from the earlier bombings, they tracked the vehicles to four different locations in rural Ireland. A green light was given for operations to sweep the locations and capture/kill any IRA at them.

At each location, seven Saxon II's and four AFAV's would roll up and men of the Royal Irish Guards would pour out and take up defensive positions around the farmhouses. Moreover, Two blackhawks would enter the airspace and rope SAS onto the roofs before entering a low orbital patrol over the targets.

SAS targets on the roof would simultaniously crash through the tiles into the top floor of the house whilst on ropes to prevent injury, aswell as going down the side of the buildings through the windows. Standard SAS protocol on building attack would be as they drop in through said ceiling and windows would be to shoot anybody in the roof before moving out fast and hard, systematically clearing the house of its occupants. However, orders were clear, shoot to disable, not to kill.

[Zoot Zoot]

[i]Three weeks later[/i]

The raid had been a complete success, with no British wounded and seven captured IRA high ranking officials it sent a message throughout the IRA that Britain would not be phased by their resistance. Within days of the raid, MI5 estimated that most of the IRA's weapon stockpiles had been dumped at locations established by Parliament as armistice depots. Violence across Ireland dropped significantly, but it did not stop.

Carbombings and grenade attacks were regular in Derry and Dublin on the outskirts of the towns. British forces had locked down the city centers in both cities, building checkpoints on all roads in and blocking up sideroads. Dublin and Derry had their respective greenzones, similiar to American occupied Baghdad in Iraq in 2003.

Out in the more rural areas of Ireland near military bases and small OP's, sniper attacks were frequent, whilst killing few soldiers, broken bones and gun wounds were common. One paticular sniper who had successfully killed four soldiers was using a fifty calibre rifle mounted on a welded frame inside of his car and was prooving very difficult to catch and kill.

One paticular raid against a British supply convoy had killed six soldiers and rebels stole two trucks of ammunition and weaponry. UAV's and satellite images have been unable to locate the stolen supplies.

Since the campaign began in Ireland fifty one soldiers had been killed by dissident Irish insurgents and sixty seven wounded.

Edited May 2, 2011 by Zoot Zoot

[Zoot Zoot]

Derry had dissolved into a very unstable city in Northern Ireland, with the IRA essentially disarmed and moving towards the political and democratic side of the scale under the Sein Fein movement, their more hardcore members came together to form the RIRA, or "Real IRA" as they liked to be called. The numbers were limited, only around one hundred and fifty in the entire nation of Ireland. Britains lightening raids across the island and left the IRA leaderless and shattered which allowed its members to melt away back into obscurity. The ones that remained would have to be dealt with harshly, they would either be arrested or killed, London didnt mind which so long as the insurgency stopped.

MI5 had gathered information that showed that this new group was one hundred and fifty men strong, and was broken into five cells of thirty men, each of whom were former Irish military, possibly lead by former Irish special forces. The new British Armies ARJ's and AFAV's had come into a world of their own, their armour prooving incredibly resistant to the largest of explosions by the RIRA. Whilst one ARJ's was lost during a carbombing and a resulting firefight outside Dublin, the others had remained largely unscathed.

PNSI had received a phonecall from the IRA warning that there was a bomb planted in the Queens University of Belfast, they had thirty minutes to evacuate the building and any attempt to find the bomb would result in it being detonated early, causing many casuality.

Meanwhile at Holywood in the Palace Barracks, several 80mm Mortar rounds had been fired into the base from a flatbed pickup truck seen in the nearby area. The attack killed two soldiers and wounded six more. The firefight which resulted in the loss of an ARJ yeilded no British casualties but two RIRA were gunned down and 3 more taken prisoner.

Since the campaign began in Ireland fifty three soldiers had been killed by dissident Irish insurgents and seventy four wounded.