Exploring Representations of the Soldier as Victim: From Northern Ireland to Iraq

Abstract

From 1969 until the signing of the Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement in 1998 the British armed forces were engaged in a political conflict in Northern Ireland (Operation [Op] Banner).During this operation the British military experienced the death of its first soldier – Gunner Robert Curtis – at the hands of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA) in 1970.Until the end of Op Banner in 2007 a further 650 British soldiers were killed and 6307 wounded (Ministry of Defence, 2007).More recently in 2003 the British military committed thousands of its soldiers to fight in the conflict in Iraq (Op Telic).During the seven-year conflict 179 British service personnel were killed, 222 seriously injured1 and thousands more admitted to field hospitals for being wounded in action, contracting diseases or suffering non-battle injuries (Ministry of Defence, 2009).In addition to this physical suffering British soldiersfrom both operations are only just beginning to come forward to seek assistance with psychological ‘wounds’ sustained during conflict.However, with British operations in Northern Ireland now superseded by Op Helvetic and the conflict in Afghanistan (Op Herrick) progressing into its tenth year, the British military continues to experience the bloodshed of soldiers.During 2009 the Real Irish Republican Army (RIRA) killed two British soldiers in Northern Ireland, the first since Lance Bombardier Stephen Restorick in 1997 (McDonald et al., 2009).In addition,the British military is currently suffering a rising death toll of over 350 soldiers in Afghanistan, with thousands more wounded (Ministry of Defence, 2011).