'Sir, They'Re Taking the Kids Indoors' : The British Army in Northern Ireland 1973-74

Ken's latest book looks at the bloody period of 1973/4 and features many contributions from those who were there, besides superb and painstaking research. 'Sir, they're taking the kids indoors' was a cry heard by British soldiers who served on tours of Northern Ireland.

It refers to the IRA tactic of warning the civilian population in Republican areas of the impending arrival of one of their gunmen.

Clearly, as witnessed by the number of civilian deaths among the Catholic population directly or indirectly at the hands of their 'protectors' in the IRA, they were not averse to killing or causing the deaths of Catholics.

Once the 'jungle drums' had warned mothers of the approaching death at the hands of the 'widow maker' they would bring their offspring indoors and thus give the IRA the 'moral high ground' of not shooting their own supporters.

Once a soldier had called out these words to comrades, the patrol would know that the angel of death was in the area, never far away at the best of times.

It would alert them to the fact that they had to be ready for something more lethal than the aimed bricks, Molotov cocktails, dead animals and dog excrement which the women of the Republican areas so charmingly saved for the optimum moment.

It would herald the approach of a gunman or gunmen and the locals, especially those who revelled in the prospect of 'shooting a Brit' or adherents to the Provisionals' line of killing a soldier a day, would have their sadistic hatred sated for a day at least at the sight of British blood staining the streets. About the AuthorKen Wharton began writing in 2007 after being made redundant and in the eight months of unemployment finished his first book: A Long Long War; Voices From The British Army in Northern Ireland.