Category Archives: Terrorism

23rd January picture of the day…

23 Sunday Jan 2022

Posted by in London, Musings, Photography, Picture of the day, Terrorism

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It’s been a quiet weekend here in Bigland Towers. Dawn’s been under the weather. The weather’s not been great either – and there’s been enough to do at home to keep us confined to barracks anyway. That said we haven’t been completely housebound as we have nipped out to shops and a couple of our local pubs, but I’d hardly call it an active weekend – and neither would my Fitbit!

On the bright side, I’m cracking on with slide scanning and decluttering (much to the joy of the local charity shops) and preparing for the week ahead which I’m determined will be a good one. I’ve got two varied railway-related events on tomorrow which will see me out and about. One is taking more pictures for a forthcoming article in RAIL that involves a trip to Leeds. The other I’ll keep quiet about for now as I don’t want to spoil the surprise for some people. All will be revealed tomorrow. Expect a rolling blog and pictures from my travels anyway as well as an update on some other railway news.

Right, it’s time for super. Dawn’s made a fabulous Shepherds pie so I’m off to eat. all that remains is to leave you with the picture of the day which is taken from my latest batch of old slide scans. This is another view of London which has changed out of all recognition and if I didn’t tell you where it is in advance most people would have no idea where this was.

This picture is of what is now the Jubilee line underground station at Canary Wharf in London’s Docklands. It was taken in 1996 but my records don’t say what month.

The picture’s taken from the Docklands Light railway as my train passed over Middle Dock. This whole area is now an expanse of some seriously expensive real-estate! Oh, you see the buildings to the right? That’s South Quay. It was devastated by an IRA truck bomb in February 1996 which killed two people and injured 100. The buildings you see are shattered shells. I was living in the East End at the time and even though we were over a mile away our windows shook so much we though they were going to be blown in. This was the reality of terrorism in the days of ‘The Troubles’ and it makes some of the things people fret about now pale into insignificance when you look at what happened to the the capital on a regular basis in those days.

I’ve a favour to ask…
If you enjoy reading this blog, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course (although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab!), but the revenue from them helps to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site – and right now (because of Covid), us freelances appreciate all the help that we can get to aid us in bouncing back from lockdowns. Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website –  https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/

Thank you!

 

London and the aftermath of yesterday’s tragic events

23 Thursday Mar 2017

Posted by in London, Terrorism, Travel

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When I wrote my last blog entry about living in London during the IRA days of the IRA’s bombing campaign I never imagined that 24 hours later London would be the scene of another tragic attack which would cause the death of 3 innocent people.

Of course, as soon as it happened we had wall to wall media coverage and acres of speculation. Some sections of the right-wing media (especially in America) ramped up the hype and hysteria, aided and abetted their followers who hope to sow division and fear amongst people. Here’s an example of their bullshit.

Phares

No. One man didn’t ‘shut down a city’. No-one has ever shut down London, not the Luftwaffe, not the IRA, nor the far right bomber David Copeland – and no-one ever will.

I lived in London for nearly 25 years. At heart, I’m still a Londoner. The city made me who I am and I’m eternally grateful for everything the city gave me. I was still living there the last time their was a major incident, the 7th July bombings on 2005. I covered that horrific day for a magazine and I vividly remember the reaction of Londoners as events unfolded. It was one of stoicism and resolve. The resolve not to be cowed, not to be beaten. I was intensely proud of my fellow Londoners that day, I still am. I’ve no doubt that they’ll be showing those same strengths today.

People of many different faiths and nationalities were killed on 7/7. The same may well be true of yesterday as the killers really don’t care who they kill. All they want to do is spread terror – and that’s the one thing we must never let anyone do – including their right-wing friends in the media. So here’s a hat-tip to people like James Cleverly, who’s taken on the poisonous Katie Hopkins

MP

This is the true spirit of London, not ‘Hatey Katie’s’ warped vision.

tube message

 

 

Working from home, and other thoughts

21 Tuesday Mar 2017

Posted by in London, Musings, Terrorism, Work

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– and it’s not a bad place to be today! The Spring weather’s taken a turn for the worse up in’t Pennines. There’s a chill wind, rain and threats of snow (in fact, as I typed this, it started hailing), so I’m happy to be catching up on paperwork, picture-editing and listening to the news – most of which is depressing.

The death of former IRA leader Martin McGuinness features in many reports. Understandably, his memory generates strong feelings from some, but there’s no doubt that , without the willingness of him and others to reject the bullet for the ballot box, ‘the troubles’ would still be with us. I lived in London for nearly 25 years and experienced first-hand the devastation that the IRA wrought. In 1996 I was still living in the East End. I was at home the night the massive South Quay bomb detonated. We lived over a mile North of the explosion in Bromley by Bow, but we though our windows were going to blow in. The blast rattled the hell out of them – and us. I’m glad to see the back of those times which were far more dangerous than today’s hysteria around Islamic extremism. The IRA killed for more UK citizens than Islamists ever have. So, I’m grateful to McGuinness for being part of bringing those days to an end. There’s a lesson in what he did for anyone who wishes to learn it. Who would have thought that two implacable enemies, McGuinness and the Unionist firebrand the Rev Ian Paisley  would form such a rapport that they would earn the sobriquet ‘the chuckle brothers’?

Right, enough of philosophising, I’ve work to do…

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