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Military Reaction Force
The Military Reaction Force, Military Reconnaissance Force or Mobile Reconnaissance Force (MRF)Taylor, Peter (2001). ''Brits: The War Against the IRA''. Bloomsbury Publishing. pp. 128–130. was a covert intelligence-gathering and counterinsurgency unit of the British Army active in Northern Ireland during the Troubles. The unit was formed during the summer of 1971 and operated until late 1972 or early 1973. MRF teams operated in plain clothes and civilian vehicles, equipped with pistols and submachine guns. They were tasked with tracking and arresting or killing members of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA). It is alleged that the MRF killed a number of Catholic civilians in drive-by shootings. The MRF also handled informers within the paramilitary groups and ran several front companies to gather intelligence. In October 1972, the IRA uncovered and attacked two of the MRF's front companies—a mobile laundry service and a massage parlour—which contributed to the unit' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Counterinsurgency
Counterinsurgency (COIN, or NATO spelling counter-insurgency) is "the totality of actions aimed at defeating irregular forces". The Oxford English Dictionary defines counterinsurgency as any "military or political action taken against the activities of guerrillas or revolutionaries" and can be considered war by a state against a non-state adversary. Insurgency and counterinsurgency campaigns have been waged since ancient history. Western thought on fighting 'small wars' gained interest during initial periods of European colonisation, with modern thinking on counterinsurgency was developed during decolonization. During insurgency and counterinsurgency, the distinction between civilians and combatants is often blurred. Counterinsurgency may involve attempting to win the hearts and minds of populations supporting the insurgency. Alternatively, it may be waged in an attempt to intimidate or eliminate civilian populations suspected of loyalty to the insurgency through indiscri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
14 Intelligence Company
The Special Reconnaissance Unit, also known as the 14 Field Security and Intelligence Company, was a unit of the British Army's Intelligence Corps which conducted covert operations in Northern Ireland during the Troubles. It conducted undercover surveillance operations against suspected members of Irish republican and Ulster loyalist paramilitary groups. Members of the unit were recruited from regular Army battalions and trained in an eight-week course by the Special Air Service (SAS). The unit, then numbering 120 men, was deployed to Northern Ireland in November 1972.Dr Huw BennettThe reluctant pupil? Britain’s army and learning in counterinsurgency Royal United Services Institute, 11 October 2009. Their responsibilities included intelligence gathering and assessment and tracking down and neutralising suspected paramilitaries. Allegations of collusion with loyalist paramilitaries were made against the unit. In 1987, the unit became part of the newly formed United Kingdom Spe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Terrorism
Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of violence against non-combatants to achieve political or ideological aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violence during peacetime or in the context of war against non-combatants. There are various different definitions of terrorism, with no universal agreement about it. Different definitions of terrorism emphasize its randomness, its aim to instill fear, and its broader impact beyond its immediate victims. Modern terrorism, evolving from earlier iterations, employs various tactics to pursue political goals, often leveraging fear as a strategic tool to influence decision makers. By targeting densely populated public areas such as transportation hubs, airports, shopping centers, tourist attractions, and nightlife venues, terrorists aim to instill widespread insecurity, prompting Public policy, policy changes through Manipulation (psychology), psychological manipulation and undermining confidence ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Troops Out Movement
The Troops Out Movement (TOM) was an Irish republican organisation formed in the United Kingdom in 1973, following actions by the British Army in Northern Ireland during the Troubles, including the Bloody Sunday and Ballymurphy massacres by the Parachute Regiment. The organisation's goals were to secure the withdrawal of British troops from Northern Ireland and support self-determination for the Irish people as a whole. These main aims were supplemented by smaller ones such as the demilitarisation of the Northern Irish police and the paramilitary Ulster Special Constabulary (USC) as well as opposition to discriminatory policies against Catholics in Northern Ireland. The TOM sought partnerships and other forms of cooperation with like-minded organisations in Ireland, Great Britain, and internationally. As the Troubles continued to grow in severity, with increasing clashes in Northern Ireland between Irish republicans and unionist, primarily paramilitary groups such as the Pro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Martin Dillon
Martin Dillon (born 2 June 1949) is an Irish author, journalist, and broadcaster. He has won international acclaim for his investigative reporting and non-fiction works on the Troubles, including his bestselling trilogy, ''The Shankill Butchers'', ''The Dirty War'' and ''God and the Gun'', about the Northern Ireland conflict. The historian and scholar, Dr. Conor Cruise O'Brien, described him as "our Virgil to that Inferno". ''The Irish Times'' hailed him as "one of the most creative writers of our time". Early life Martin Dillon was born in the Lower Falls area of West Belfast, Northern Ireland. He grew up with nine siblings in a traditional Catholic household. His mother, Maureen, looked after the children while his father, Gerard, worked as a watch maker and later telephone engineer to support his large family. Dillon attended St Finian's Primary School on the Falls Road. In 1961, aged twelve, he left Belfast to pursue a religious vocation at Montfort College Seminary in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Parliament Of The United Kingdom
The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, and may also legislate for the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster in London. Parliament possesses legislative supremacy and thereby holds ultimate power over all other political bodies in the United Kingdom and the Overseas Territories. While Parliament is bicameral, it has three parts: the sovereign, the House of Lords, and the House of Commons. The three parts acting together to legislate may be described as the King-in-Parliament. The Crown normally acts on the advice of the prime minister, and the powers of the House of Lords are limited to only delaying legislation. The House of Commons is the elected lower chamber of Parliament, with elections to 650 single-member constituencies held at least every five years under the first-past-the-post system. By constitutional conventi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jeremy Hanley
Sir Jeremy James Hanley, KCMG (born 17 November 1945) is a politician and former chartered accountant from the United Kingdom. He served as the Chairman of the Conservative Party from 1994 to 1995, and as a member of parliament (MP) representing the constituency of Richmond and Barnes from 1983 to 1997. Career Hanley was educated at Rugby School, and began his career with Peat Marwick Mitchell & Company (now KPMG) as an articled clerk in 1963. He qualified as a chartered accountant in 1969, and as a Chartered Certified Accountant and chartered secretary in 1980. He joined the Financial Training Company, responsible for training chartered accountants, as a lecturer in Law and Accountancy (now Kaplan Financial Ltd), and rose to become the organisation's deputy chairman. Hanley stood unsuccessfully as the Conservative Party candidate in the 1978 Lambeth Central by-election, and for the same seat in the general election the following year, before becoming the MP for Richmo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Panorama (TV Series)
A panorama (formed from Greek πᾶν "all" + ὅραμα "view") is any wide-angle view or representation of a physical space, whether in painting, drawing, photography (panoramic photography), film, seismic images, or 3D modeling. The word was coined in the 18th century by the English ( Irish descent) painter Robert Barker to describe his panoramic paintings of Edinburgh and London. The motion-picture term ''panning'' is derived from ''panorama''. A panoramic view is also purposed for multimedia, cross-scale applications to an outline overview (from a distance) along and across repositories. This so-called "cognitive panorama" is a panoramic view over, and a combination of, cognitive spaces used to capture the larger scale. History The device of the panorama existed in painting, particularly in murals, as early as 20 A.D., in those found in Pompeii, as a means of generating an immersive " panoptic" experience of a vista. Cartographic experiments during the Enligh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Holywood, County Down
Holywood ( ; ) is a town in the metropolitan area of Belfast in County Down, Northern Ireland. It is a Holywood, County Down (civil parish), civil parish and townland of lying on the shore of Belfast Lough, between Belfast and Bangor, County Down, Bangor. Holywood Exchange and Belfast City Airport are nearby. Toponymy The English name ''Holywood'' comes . This was the name the Normans gave to the woodland surrounding the monastery of St Laiseran, son of Nasca. The monastery was founded by Laiseran before 640 and was on the site of the present Holywood Priory. The earliest Anglicised form appears as ''Haliwode'' in a 14th-century document. The Irish language, Irish name for Holywood is ''Ard Mhic Nasca'' meaning "high ground of Mac Nasca". History In the early 19th century, Holywood, like many other coastal villages throughout Ireland, became popular as a Seaside resort, resort for bathing, sea-bathing. Many wealthy Belfast merchants chose the town and the surrounding area to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mau Mau Rebellion
The Mau Mau rebellion (1952–1960), also known as the Mau Mau uprising, Mau Mau revolt, or Kenya Emergency, was a war in the British Kenya Colony (1920–1963) between the Kenya Land and Freedom Army (KLFA), also known as the Mau Mau, and the British authorities. Dominated by Kikuyu people, Kikuyu, Meru people, Meru and Embu people, Embu fighters, the KLFA also comprised units of Kamba people, Kamba and Maasai people, Maasai who fought against the European colonists in Kenya — the British Army, and the local Kenya Regiment (British colonists, local auxiliary militia, and pro-British Kikuyu). The capture of Field Marshal Dedan Kimathi on 21 October 1956 signalled the defeat of the Mau Mau, and essentially ended the British military campaign. However, the rebellion survived until after Kenya's independence from Britain, driven mainly by the Meru people, Meru units led by Field Marshal Musa Mwariama. General Baimungi, one of the last Mau Mau leaders, was killed shortly after Ke ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kenya Colony
The Colony and Protectorate of Kenya, commonly known as British Kenya or British East Africa, was part of the British Empire in Africa from 1920 until 1963. It was established when the former East Africa Protectorate was transformed into a British Crown colony in 1920. Technically, the "Colony of Kenya" referred to the interior lands, while a 16 km (10 mi) coastal strip, nominally on lease from the List of sultans of Zanzibar, Sultan of Zanzibar, was the "Protectorate of Kenya", but the two were controlled as a single administrative unit. The colony came to an end in 1963 when a native Kenyan majority government was elected for the first time and eventually Kenya (1963–1964), declared independence. However, Kenya is sometimes referred to as the "Scotland, Scottish Colony" due to the fact that Sir William Mackinnon, 1st Baronet, William Mackinnon, the founder of the Imperial British East Africa Company that was governing Kenya, was a Scots people, native of Scotland. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kenya Land And Freedom Army
The Kenya Land and Freedom Army (KLFA), also known as the Mau Mau, was a Kenyan insurgent group which fought against British colonial rule in Kenya during the Mau Mau rebellion from 1952 to 1960. Its membership consisted largely of the Kikuyu people. The KLFA was led by Dedan Kimathi for most of its existence. After four years, British forces managed to destroy the KFLA militarily, and Kimathi was captured and executed in 1957. Though the Mau Mau rebellion was ultimately suppressed, it played a major role in achieving Kenya's independence, which occurred in 1963. History Origins The KLFA's membership consisted largely of the Kikuyu people, many of whom had their lands confiscated by British colonial officials and given to white settlers during the early 20th century. The KFLA espoused African nationalist and anti-colonial ideologies, and was led by Dedan Kimathi for most of its existence. Mau Mau uprising The KFLA began what is now called the Mau Mau uprising in 1952. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
