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24:00

but as Padraig explained, there was a reason the

24:02

officer was doing this. He's blood in them, he's

24:04

based in them, I think is the time. Because

24:06

a lot of these soldiers are first time in

24:08

a conflict zone. Some of them may be

24:10

only off the boat from Liverpool. And

24:13

in the views of the best practice

24:15

of the British military is that they need

24:18

to be annured to this type of brutality

24:20

and violence. So that's what the Commandant Officer

24:22

is doing. There's a method in his madness.

24:26

Zbigniew's body was initially moved to the Royal

24:28

Victoria Hospital where a doctor would confirm he

24:30

was dead at 5.25 in the morning. While

24:34

he lay there, back in London

24:36

his family were oblivious to what had

24:38

happened, as they thought Zbigniew was enjoying

24:40

a weekend in Dublin. It would

24:42

still be a few days before he was identified and

24:45

they would find out what happened. Meanwhile,

24:47

back on the Lower Falls, the nightmare

24:49

the community had endured was in many

24:51

ways only beginning. By

24:54

the time Zbigniew had been murdered, the curfew

24:56

had been in place around seven hours. Over

24:59

the course of that night, the poorly armed

25:02

IRA ran out of ammunition and slowly the

25:04

firing began to stop. Podrick

25:06

explains. In

25:08

the late afternoon, there was

25:10

an almost sort of constant income and we're

25:12

taking fire here, we're taking fire there and

25:15

there were gun battles going on throughout the

25:17

area. And then

25:19

over the course of the evening

25:21

and the night, this draws down

25:24

to the point where sort

25:26

of by approaching midnight you

25:28

had no gun battles going on at

25:30

all. A lot of that was to

25:32

do with the fact that the ammunition of Republicans

25:35

on the ground had been completely expanded. However,

25:39

the British Army were preparing a major

25:41

military operation and the conflict with the

25:43

IRA was merely the opening phase of

25:45

this. With the area

25:47

pacified as they saw it, they began

25:49

to rip the community apart street by

25:52

street, house by house in a search

25:54

for weapons. Now the

25:56

term search is a mild definition for

25:58

what unfolded over the... following day. Houses

26:01

were destroyed, seedings were pulled

26:03

down, floorboards were ripped off,

26:06

television smashed and furniture cut

26:08

open. This was all under

26:10

the pretext of searching for weapons. However,

26:12

this couldn't explain the widespread reports

26:14

of theft. This ranged from

26:16

stealing money from homes and gas meters

26:18

to one report of soldiers looting a

26:20

pub. The local politician,

26:22

Patti Devlin, described how the searches seemed

26:25

to be as much about intimidation as

26:27

anything else. They

26:29

axed doors down that could have easily been

26:31

opened, ripped up

26:33

floorboards, broke furniture unnecessarily,

26:36

and tipped the contents of drawers and cupboards

26:38

all over the place. Those

26:41

responsible for these actions were not just a

26:44

few bad apples. On

26:46

the Friday evening, a Catholic priest, Father

26:48

Pardrugh Murphy, had contacted Een Friedland, the

26:50

general officer commanding of the British Army

26:52

in Northern Ireland. Murphy wanted

26:54

permission for church volunteers to try and

26:57

de-escalate the situation and asked Friedland for

26:59

a guarantee they wouldn't be tear-gassed as

27:01

had happened earlier in the evening. Friedland

27:04

replied, They

27:06

are better gassed than shot. A

27:10

local community report in the aftermath

27:12

of what happened described the chaos

27:14

of what had unfolded. Wardrobes

27:17

and cupboards were forced and

27:19

the contents scattered. Chairs

27:21

and sofas had the upholstery slashed

27:24

open, radios and TV sets were

27:26

prized apart and wrecked. It

27:28

was the innocent who suffered most. False

27:31

or out-of-date information fed to

27:33

the military from the old

27:35

and discredited Royal Ulster Constabulary

27:37

files sent search party after

27:39

search party back to the

27:41

same address, and the absence

27:43

of incriminating evidence merely spurred

27:45

the searchers on to new

27:47

destructiveness. It was

27:49

not unknown for the same house

27:51

to be searched five times before

27:53

the baffled soldier finally withdrew. There

27:56

was also a very strong sectarian

27:58

dimension to these raids. The

28:00

regiments involved included the King's

28:02

own Scottish boarders and the

28:04

Black Watch. Both

28:06

raised in Scotland, they had large

28:08

numbers of Protestant recruits and these

28:11

soldiers smashed religious statues and flushed

28:13

medals down toilets in Catholic homes.

28:16

These acts were particularly shocking to what

28:18

was a highly devout community. Large

28:21

amounts of ammunition and some weapons were turned

28:24

up in the searches and as

28:26

Saturday July 4th dragged on, the

28:28

army had no intention of winding

28:30

down what they saw as an

28:32

effective operation. In fact, the

28:34

curfew area was extended and at one

28:36

point covered 60 streets. Huge numbers

28:40

of people were also arrested. These

28:42

included many IRA volunteers but also

28:44

large numbers of young men. The

28:47

army operated on the assumption everyone,

28:50

but particularly young men, were guilty

28:52

of something. In houses

28:54

where guns or ammunition were found, all

28:56

men, no matter whether there was any

28:59

evidence connecting them to the find, were

29:01

arrested. Numerous arrestees were

29:03

severely beaten. In total, 337 people

29:05

were arrested. Indeed,

29:09

the notion that the entire community were guilty

29:11

of something was a very pervasive idea at

29:13

the time. Even that

29:15

journalist Tony Gertie, who had witnessed

29:17

the British army brutalise the body

29:19

of Zbigniew Uglik, would when reflecting

29:21

back on the Falls curfew somewhat

29:23

ludicrously claim. The army would justify their actions

29:25

by pointing out the substantial haul

29:33

of ammunition and guns they had

29:35

found during their searches. At

29:38

a press conference at the Springfield Road

29:40

Barracks in Belfast, they would reveal 21,000

29:42

rounds of ammunition, 107

29:45

guns, 25 pounds of explosives and a grenade. Now

29:51

claims that this justified their actions

29:53

received short shrift in nationalist communities

29:56

where many saw it as unilateral

29:58

disarmament of one community. that

30:01

left nationalists vulnerable to sectarian

30:03

attacks from their unionist neighbours.

30:06

Indeed, in Dublin, even the Government of

30:08

the Republic of Ireland would issue a

30:10

statement that echoed similar sentiments. There

30:13

has been a unilateral disarmament of

30:15

one section of the Belfast people,

30:18

the Catholic minority in the Falls

30:20

area. This inevitably causes fear

30:22

amongst these people which can only

30:24

be allayed by the absolute guarantee

30:26

of their protection and

30:29

the equally effective disarmament of

30:31

all others who hold arms

30:33

illegally. The fact the

30:35

British Army were paraded to unionist MPs,

30:37

John Brooke and William Long, through the

30:40

Lower Falls on Saturday evening in the

30:42

back of an army Land Rover, provided

30:44

an image that confirmed the idea the

30:47

Army were acting in a highly partisan

30:49

fashion. A later local

30:51

community record would compare this act of

30:53

parading these MPs through the community to

30:55

Mussolini being paraded through the streets of

30:58

Benghazi after the Italian Army conquered the

31:00

Libyan city in the Second World War.

31:03

While the political consequences of these

31:05

actions would echo down decades, on

31:07

Saturday, July 4th, a major crisis

31:10

started to develop in the Lower

31:12

Falls. Life had come to

31:14

a standstill. Local clergy who lived

31:16

outside the area were not allowed in. There

31:18

had been two weddings due to take place

31:20

in the community that morning. Only

31:22

one actually went ahead. And

31:25

this only happened because the groom was

31:27

a British Army soldier and his brother,

31:29

a high-ranking policeman, in Rochester, England. However,

31:32

the community had more pressing concerns than weddings

31:34

that weekend. The Lower

31:36

Falls was a poor community and few houses

31:38

had refrigerators and in the height of summer

31:40

they had limited capacity to store food. The

31:43

lack of essentials was compounded by the fact that

31:45

Saturday was the normal shopping day in the area.

31:48

This meant that many houses were

31:50

running out of essentials by that

31:52

Saturday morning, but the British Army

31:54

stopped shops opening. This left babies

31:56

without food in some cases and

31:58

families became desperate. Now

32:01

the military did allow some shops to open between the

32:03

hours of 5 and 7 that evening, but

32:06

even while this brief respite took place,

32:08

the local community were harassed by the

32:10

army as they joined long queues. By

32:13

Sunday, July 5th, the third day

32:15

of the curfew, the situation was

32:17

becoming untenable. People couldn't leave

32:20

their homes, which in some cases had

32:22

been severely damaged, toilets in some instances

32:24

had even been smashed. Increasingly, the army

32:27

top brass was coming to the conclusion

32:29

that they would have to lift the

32:31

curfew. Having already agreed the community could

32:34

attend 9am mass that

32:36

morning, behind the scenes General Ean

32:38

Friedland had decided that the curfew

32:40

would not be reimposed afterwards. However,

32:44

before this was communicated to the troops

32:46

on the ground, the women of Waidow

32:48

West Belfast had already taken decisive action

32:50

to end what was in effect a

32:52

siege of the Lower Falls. By

32:55

the Sunday morning, women from surrounding communities

32:57

were determined that they would break the

32:59

curfew. One woman later recalled,

33:02

Word came up the road that all the

33:04

people were kept indoors. They couldn't

33:07

get out for bread or milk. A

33:09

lot of them had small babies. People

33:11

decided they would have to do something about

33:13

it. When one crowd gathered,

33:15

another crowd gathered as well and we said we're

33:17

going down to try and break the curfew. The

33:20

women collected essentials and started to

33:22

walk towards the falls at 9am

33:25

on that Sunday morning. Approaching

33:27

the military checkpoints, the tide of women

33:29

pushed their way through. Powerful

33:32

footage of these events survives to the

33:34

present day. The women were

33:36

singing Go Home, Ya Bums Go Home. You

33:38

can hear the audio of that recording now.

33:50

The camera captures large crowds of

33:52

women giving Nazi salutes to British

33:54

Army soldiers. These images

33:57

encapsulated how the British Army had

33:59

spent any goodwill they had accumulated

34:01

over the previous months. Relations

34:04

between the nationalist communities across Northern

34:06

Ireland and the British Army were

34:08

permanently and forever changed. Now

34:11

the march of the women into the Lower

34:14

Falls with supplies effectively ended the curfew, but

34:16

the story was far from over. The

34:18

people of the Lower Falls were traumatised,

34:21

but they were given little chance to

34:23

recover. Almost immediately a propaganda

34:25

war started, where the British Army would

34:27

try and control the narrative. Initially

34:30

they would try to downplay the gravity of

34:32

what had happened, and claimed they had only

34:34

fired 14 bullets over the

34:36

entire weekend. That was simply

34:38

not credible. Indeed, they would

34:40

eventually go on to admit that they had in

34:42

fact fired 1,454 live rounds, 1,385 CS gas canisters,

34:45

and 218 CS gas cartridges. However, the scale of

34:53

the operation that took place that weekend

34:55

was only one aspect of the events

34:57

that would be disputed over the decades.

35:00

What exactly motivated the British Army to

35:03

act as they did in the manner

35:05

they had was a point of

35:07

contention from the moment the curfew was lifted. The

35:10

British Army then, and since, has

35:12

always claimed that the military operation

35:14

that weekend had only started after

35:16

the raid on Balkan Street on

35:18

the Friday evening had been met

35:20

with stern resistance. In 2007 the British

35:24

Army published a highly controversial review

35:26

of Operation Banner, its campaign in

35:28

Northern Ireland in the late 20th

35:30

century, and when discussing the

35:32

Falls' curfew it stated, "...the

35:34

army had been under significant pressure to sort

35:37

out the lower falls. The

35:39

sorting out was taken to mean imposing law

35:41

and order, enabling the all

35:43

you see to patrol without assistance." While

35:46

they claimed this was a reason for the Balkan

35:48

Street raid, in nationalist communities

35:50

across Ireland, many believed a military

35:53

operation to last the weekend had been

35:55

designed from the outset to, in the

35:58

British Army's parlance, sort out

36:00

the lower falls. This argued

36:02

that the Balkan Street raid was

36:04

designed to provoke a major confrontation.

36:07

Paddy Devlin, the local MP in

36:09

his autobiography, certainly subscribed to this

36:12

idea. He argued that the time

36:14

of the raid was highly unusual. Friday

36:17

afternoon was one of the busiest times

36:19

in the area, and this almost guaranteed

36:21

they would meet resistance. Devlin

36:23

would also describe how there had

36:25

been soldiers waiting inside streets and

36:27

that the Balkan Street raid was,

36:29

in his words, a trigger for what

36:31

he called a well-planned confrontation. The

36:34

Republican, Robert McClellan told the historian

36:36

Andrew Walsh he had seen rows

36:38

of armoured vehicles waiting to be

36:40

deployed as well. The

36:43

sheer scale of the operation that involved

36:45

some 3,000 troops supports the idea there

36:47

was a level of pre-planning involved. If

36:50

this was the case, the plan

36:52

was a total disaster. It only served

36:54

to completely alienate the lower falls community

36:57

and definitively ended the positive relations

36:59

the British Army had enjoyed in

37:01

many nationalist areas. In

37:04

the aftermath of the curfew in 1970, the Army

37:07

Press Office went into overdrive trying to

37:09

defend what they had done. They claimed

37:11

soldiers and IRA volunteers had been killed,

37:13

presumably in an effort to portray the

37:15

event as a battle. The

37:17

Army would even claim that other IRA

37:19

volunteers who had been killed had been

37:21

secreted out of Belfast and buried in

37:23

graveyards elsewhere. How this could have happened

37:25

when the entire community was surrounded and

37:27

being pulled apart house by house was

37:29

never explained. This falsehood designed

37:32

to distort events would be repeated 18

37:34

months later in the aftermath

37:36

of the Bloody Sunday Massacre in Derry.

37:39

This was an attempt to evoke sympathy for

37:41

the Army while implying the dead were guilty

37:43

of something. This was not the

37:45

case at all. Charles R. Neal,

37:47

Patrick Ellaman and William Burns had been

37:49

residents in a community that had been besieged

37:51

and then subjected to military assault. None

37:54

were IRA volunteers. Rumours

37:57

of a different kind, however, began to circulate.

37:59

around the Zbigny of Uglik. Although

38:02

he lay dead in Lagenbank, mortuary,

38:04

the British security forces were not

38:06

finished with the young Londoner. While

38:09

they had killed the man, they were set

38:11

about destroying how he was remembered. When

38:14

I visited Belfast, Podrick described this

38:16

as an attempt to kill him multiple

38:18

times by attacking his memory. That

38:21

story is covered in the next episode,

38:24

where we will explore the murky world

38:26

of black propaganda and what

38:28

were known as psyops or psychological

38:30

operations. Until then, Sloane.

39:02

In a divided world, the one thing

39:04

everyone seems to agree on is that

39:06

the media is some kind of conspiracy.

39:08

And here's the thing, media is a

39:10

conspiracy, just not the one everyone thinks

39:12

it is. I'm Neema Raza. I'm Ben

39:14

Smith. And this is mixed signals from

39:16

Semaphore Media. Every Friday between now and

39:18

November, we're going to pull back the

39:20

curtain on the stories everyone is talking

39:22

about. Exploring how money, politics, culture and

39:24

access shape everything you read, watch and

39:26

listen to. Mixed signals, a look inside

39:28

modern media from people inside the machine,

39:30

wherever you get your podcasts.