under the royal ulster constablary, depending on what side of the political divide you come from, the ruc were seen as a protectors of a community or an oppressive force against another, but before we speak to our next guest, let's get a quick overview on this week's topic. as always we are joined by our rese and co-presenter michelle gildernew. michelle is a current np for fermana south toron. she has served in the northern ireland assembly as a former minister for agriculture and rural development and chairperson of the health committee amongst other things. michelle has been a shinfian activist since her teens and has been elected almost continuously since 1998. and today's guest is sam thompson. sam is a former member of the royal olster constablary. he experienced the loss of number of colleagues and friends and saw numerous killings. and bombings during the conflict. sam retired in 2008 and has exponded on his love of history and his naileacture. sam welcome to the show. yes, thank you shan. so sam, you grew up not far from where we're sitting now, uh, very different place from from

continued to live down there, so was basically brought up in between the two, and sam, you joined the ruc, what motivated you to do that and what was its reputation like when you joined it? right, um, in terms of motivation, i joined it pretty much by default, i didn't really... what to do with my life and i'm not at the stage where i'm retired and i still don't really know what to do with it um what year did you join and what e joined in 1979 and i was 18 on about four and a half months but the time we went in um so it was basically the economy here was unploding the place was rapidly deindustrializing and it was one of the few things that had any job security, now in terms of um reputation, there was none of the baggage and the unionist community regarding the rc, and my first memory of them is actually quite a positive one, i went to cliffenville primary school and it must have been either 1970 or 1971, our school sports day was attacked by um bigger kids from around the bone area and the teachers got u off with all the run, like there's coming over and chucking bricks and stuff at us

continued to live down there so was basically brought up in between the two and sam you joined the ruc, what motivated you to do that and what was its reputation like when you joined it? right, um, in terms of motivation, i joined it pretty much by default i didn't really know what to do with my life, and i'm not at the stage where i'm retired and i still don't really know what to do with it. um, what year did you join and what age? i joined in 1979 and i was 18 on about four and a half months by the time i went in. um, so it was basically the economy here was imploding, the place was rapidly deindustrializing, and it was one of the few things that had any job security, now in terms of um reputation, there was none of the baggage in the unionist community regarding the rc, and my first memory of them is actually quite a positive one, i went to cliffenville primary school and i must have been either 1970 or 19. 1971 our school sports day was attacked by um bigger kids from around the bone area and the teachers got us off with all the run like there's coming over and chucking bricks and

continued to live down there so was basically brought up in between the two and sam you joined the ruc what motivated you to do that and what? was its reputation like when you joined it? right, um, in terms of motivation, i joined it pretty much by default, i didn't really know what to do in my life, and i'm not at the stage where i'm retired and i still don't really know what to do with it, um, what year did you join, and what age, i joined in 1979, and i was 18 on about four and a half months by the time i went in, um, so it was... basically the economy here was unemploding, the place was rapidly deindustrializing and it was one of the few things that had any job security, now in terms of um reputation, there was none of the baggage and the unionist community regarding the oc, and my first memory of them is actually quite a positive one, i went to cliffenville primary school and it must have been either 1970 or 1971. our school sports day was attacked by um bigger kids from around the bone area and the teachers got us off with all the run like there's coming over and chucking breck.

they must have had from all the police and army vehicles and it was primarily an army post, like the ruc was down in um one corner of it. um, and the army occupied about 80% of the building, so we had like army pigs and stuff like that, parked about inside it, the army did the security, and then again it was overrun by fers and you get these squadies run the boat drone and cats and the toilets and stuff like it was unreal, but in the inquiry office you had like these um bulletproof shotters over the windows, there's no natural light. and then behind it you had all these old newspapers most been stuff to keep the draft out one day pilled them out like the were did it from 1972 and stuff like that um as a working environment it was horrible it was cramped the facilities you know were grim it was dangerous it was noisy but probably um the best bunch of people ever work with her we chal it earlier you had mentioned and i was amazed at the uh at the knowledge you had of ruc men and were killed just around springfield road, you want to tell us, well well for a start, um, a george cross was one

he was hanged for the killing of an ruc officer. the hangman in charge was thomas pierpoint, the jail's most regular hangman who carried out six executions in the deal between 1928 and 1942. after a long camping by friends and comrades of williams, he was disintered and buried in milltown cemetery in the year 2000. despite being known as europe's alcatras. there were number of successful escape attempts at the jail. the first recorded escape was in 186. in may 1941, five irish republican prisoners made their escape over the walls of freedom. during its 150-year history, the jail had many prisoners passed through its doors. some of the more well-known prisoners included former arish tishack, ammon devonura, former deputy first minister, martin mc guiinness, and the hunger striker bobby sanns. on the 24th of november 1991, during the last siages of the conflict, the loyalist wing of the prison became the target of a provisional iramb that killed a uvf and uda prisoner. a rocket attack by loyalists on the jail in the early 90s was also