Operation Demetrius was a British Army operation in Northern Ireland on 9–10 August 1971, during the Troubles. It involved the mass arrest and internment of 342 people suspected of being involved with the Irish Republican Army, which was waging a campaign for a united Ireland against the British state.

Monday 9 August 1971
Internment
In a series of raids across The North of Ireland, 342 people were arrested and taken to makeshift camps. There was an immediate upsurge of violence and 17 people were killed during the next 48 hours. Of these 10 were Catholic civilians who were shot dead by the British Army. Hugh Mullan (38) was the first Catholic priest to be killed in the conflict when he was shot dead by the British Army as he was giving the last rites to a wounded man. Winston Donnell (22) became the first Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR) solider to die in 'the Troubles' when he was shot by the Irish Republican Army (IRA) near Clady, County Tyrone. [There were more arrests in the following days and months. Internment was to continue until 5 December 1975. During that time 1,981 people were detained; 1,874 were Catholic / Republican, while 107 were Protestant / Loyalist. Internment had been proposed by Unionist politicians as the solution to the security situation in The North of Ireland but was to lead to a very high level of violence over the next few years and to increased support for the IRA. Even members of the security forces remarked on the drawbacks of internment.

Tuesday 10 August 1971
During the 9 August 1971 and the early hours of the 10 August Northern Ireland experienced the worst violence since August 1969. [Over the following days thousands of people (estimated at 7,000), the majority of them Catholics, were forced to flee their homes. Many Catholic 'refugees' moved to the Republic of Ireland, and have never returned to Northern Ireland.

Morning dino.
Very dark times for everyone.
Was it the 'H' blocks or was that the prison?
It's always amazed me the hatred between Catholics and protestants. Even 2 people meeting for the first time who would get on but as soon as they knew they were opposing faiths they'd hate each other. Probably changed now though.
I saw a documentary years ago and I was amazed at who or what country was the biggest fund raiser for the IRA! I won't say here but wonder if you knew?

Mornin Mikey,
the H-Blocks came in later around '76, it was part of the criminalisation policy, Interment camps were Nissan huts. I would say the Americans were the biggest funders of the struggle, but there are many that supported Ireland in it's time of need.

I'd only heard of the 'H' blocks and the smear campaign if I remember correctly. Yes, it was the Americans.
Not sure but would it have been Thatcher that had a go at Clinton about it and sorted it out?

Actually it could have been Reagan as he was in the with us over invading Granada, hence him saying to her in the Falklands conflict he would give her anything she needed!

It was before clinton, Thatcher implemented it, The protest began as the blanket protest (Dirty protest) in 1976, when the British government withdrew Special Category Status for convicted paramilitary prisoners. In 1978, the dispute escalated into the dirty protest and then the Hunger strikes.

Dark days indeed.

I don't know what the answer would have been or what it is now! If they'd of given in then we'd have been betraying the north and English.

The demands of the prisoners were met in all but name after the hunger strikes, it's still petty messed up, but things have improved after the good Friday agreement, still lots of work to be done though..

Found this documentary a few weeks ago, you might find it interesting, I was around 10 then myself..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOjCU8P37Cs&t=69s

It doesn't recognise it on u tube?

Works for me here, check this link..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOjCU8P37Cs

Children in crossfire,
Thanks Dino

Yes that's it, no worries, let me know what you think.

Wednesday 11 August 1971, 3rd day following the introduction of Internment.
Four people were shot dead in separate incidents in Belfast, three of them by the British Army, as violence continued.

The policy of internment lasted until December 1975 and during that time 1,981 people were interned;1,874 were nationalist, while 107 were loyalist. The first loyalist internees were detained in February 1973.

All of those arrested in the first years were Irish nationalists, the vast majority of them Catholic. Due to faulty intelligence, many had no links with the IRA. Ulster loyalist paramilitaries were also carrying out acts of violence, which were mainly directed against Catholics and Irish nationalists, but no loyalists were included in the sweep.

The fury with which stone and petrol-bomb-throwing youths attacked the British Army and RUC increased in the days that followed, as reports seeped from the detention centres of mistreatment and torture by British interrogators. Soon it became apparent that the interrogation methods employed were not merely rough handling by undisciplined soldiers but well-rehearsed techniques used by trained specialists. (Four months later, in November 1971, this would cause the Republic’s government to take the allegations of brutality to the European Court of Human Rights, demonstrating that on this occasion Dublin was not prepared to publicly identify itself with internment, as it had done in previous decades.

On 15 August the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) announced its intention to organise a campaign of civil disobedience. Representing, as it did, the largest nationalist parliamentary group in Northern Ireland, the SDLP view of the measure was critical. Rent and rate strikes and a campaign of civil disobedience may appear tame in comparison to guerrilla warfare, but in terms of undermining the state’s legitimacy in the eyes of those participating they were powerful tools. When the major nationalist political party resolutely rejected the instrument of imprisonment without trial, it confirmed that the Catholic community was largely united in its hostility to internment, albeit divided in its opinion on what shape that opposition should take. As a result of this stance, the SDLP emerged as the voice of ‘anti-insurrectionary nationalism’.

I never really got that whole to-do with the IRA as I was very young. In 1971 I was only 5 years old.
It is unbelievable to me that there can be so much upheaval concerning religion in a first world country. I'm Catholic, maybe it's a miracle I made it out of the UK alive.
Indirectly we had a role in that too I suppose, since the Dutch played big part of the UK becoming reformed instead of Catholic.
My country is also split in two religions: The Catholic south and the Reformed upper part, 2/3 of the country approx. Catholics don't make a problem out of things, but if I am to find employment here -I live in a Reformed bible belt- I have to lie on my resume about my religion and say I am Reformed otherwise I will not get employed. So Catholic are much more easy going, at least over here.

What I also never got is why England had to hold on to the northern part of Ireland, a country that isn't theirs.
I read that most English wouldn't care if Northern Ireland left the UK. Apparently it costs more to be part of the UK than it cost the UK to be part of the EU.