A lot to say about "Say Nothing." It was very difficult to watch, to sit here all these years later with the same feelings of revulsion and terror and sadness that I thought were safely packed away. There were moments where I felt not much different than the 10 year old girl I once was, - ThreadSky

yvonnewritesbskyso.bsky.social • 105 days ago

A lot to say about "Say Nothing." It was very difficult to watch, to sit here all these years later with the same feelings of revulsion and terror and sadness that I thought were safely packed away. There were moments where I felt not much different than the 10 year old girl I once was,

Comments

auntiedoodles.bsky.social•104 days ago

Great thread. I too was fairly lucky but still, we all suffered the trauma to some degree. So much in this I remember too. I went to school on Falls- soldiers around the school, home times delayed. Our “normal” really wasn’t.

yvonnewritesbskyso.bsky.social•105 days ago

sitting in the back seat of the car while my father handed over his license to a young English soldier and responded to questions about where he had been and where he was going and why. The resentment never left me, but I said nothing of course. Nor did my dad.

yvonnewritesbskyso.bsky.social•105 days ago

Nor did most of the ordinary people who were to varying degrees forever damaged by that time. The Troubles is such an inadequate caption for an era that left so many lost, wounded, and emotionally scarred lives in its wake. While I was physically untouched by the violence around me, I know I was

yvonnewritesbskyso.bsky.social•105 days ago

forever altered by it in ways that continue to reveal themselves—the inevitable double-take prompted by a forgotten backpack at a bus stop; the reminder of a bomb on the Belfast-Dublin railway line when thunder rumbles in the distance here during the rainy season ; the resentment I still feel when

yvonnewritesbskyso.bsky.social•105 days ago

I'm asked to step aside to be searched at airport security; the verbal dance when I meet someone from Northern Ireland and find myself looking for clues about their background so I know if it's safe to proceed in the conversation. Still. After all these years.

yvonnewritesbskyso.bsky.social•105 days ago

While British soldiers were not crouching on every corner in our housing estate in the 1970s, and our mothers weren't out banging bin lids on the street, The Troubles were always there. Always there on the very edges of our lives – on the news every night, at army or police checkpoints

yvonnewritesbskyso.bsky.social•105 days ago

on. our roads, and in the rattle of our kitchen windows when a bomb exploded somewhere close. It was always part of someone else’s personal history, until I suppose I realized it was part of mine too. Did we had a word like "trauma" for what we were going through? If so, nobody said it.

niallmaskey.bsky.social•99 days ago

Forever altered in ways that continue to reveal themselves.... You have articulated in a short sentence feelings that I've not been able to explain or fully understand, I will use this in future. Thank you.

yvonnewritesbskyso.bsky.social•99 days ago

It’s so difficult to articulate. I’m reminded of a detail In “Dirty Linen.” Martin Doyle recalls his mother telling him an elderly neighbor had died. Only 8 at the time, he responded “Who shot her?” It didn’t occur to him that someone may have died of natural causes. That stopped me in my tracks.

cellah26.bsky.social•104 days ago

An excellent thread with a lot of food for thought.....

shellsbelles.bsky.social•104 days ago

Thank you for putting into words what I was feeling exactly

yvonnewritesbskyso.bsky.social•104 days ago

Thank you for that. 💚

deardra.bsky.social•104 days ago

The experiences of so many of us and still so much unresolved.

psdumas.bsky.social•99 days ago

OMG, I read the book and forgot to watch the show.. The book was incredible. One of the best I ever read. I hope the story on tv was as good.

yvonnewritesbskyso.bsky.social•98 days ago

It’s streaming on Disney+

psdumas.bsky.social•98 days ago

Thanks! I don't get Hulu or Disney+. Shoot!😩

annapr.bsky.social•104 days ago

Great thread, Yvonne.

yvonnewritesbskyso.bsky.social•104 days ago

Thank you for reading. There's so much left to say & so much guilt around even saying it when I know there are vast numbers of people so much worse off - entire family circles still mourning loved ones lost to political violence; those horribly maimed in bombings; those denied answers & justice.

patrickjkelly.bsky.social•104 days ago

Superb thread Yvonne, you caught a hell of alot there - the checkpoint bits in the bavk of the car brought me back. Not quite ready to face "Say Nothing" yet, in time perhaps.

yvonnewritesbskyso.bsky.social•104 days ago

Thank you for reading Patrick. I've been stopped in my tracks so many times by the ways in which I'm transported back to that time. Last year, I was in San Diego for a Peter Frampton concert, a lifetime away from my homeplace. The last time I saw him, he opened for Chris de Burgh at the RDS.

yvonnewritesbskyso.bsky.social•104 days ago

I wore a silver skirt for the occasion, a throwback to the '80s & that long-ago summer in Dublin. This was not the memory that came rushing to me as I made my way to the merchandise stall. Instead, I found myself transported to an afternoon at Antrim Forum in the 1970s.

yvonnewritesbskyso.bsky.social•104 days ago

A policeman is wrapping a silver Mylar blanket around my shoulders. There was a bomb scare in the town, and we all had to run home. I remember nothing other than being small and shivering, still wet from the pool in my blue swimsuit, and the silver Mylar blanket.

yvonnewritesbskyso.bsky.social•104 days ago

If we could go back in time, what would we say to the children we used to be? How would we explain why we didn't go to the same schools or why somebody would time a bomb to explode in a shop when we might be there? Surely we would say something rather than nothing. Surely we know better now.

Comments

Posting Rules

Reply