Craic On

Nuclear Fallout

New papers, just released under the 30 year rule in the UK, show that, when nuclear tension was at its highest in 1983, with Us President Reagan calling the Soviet Union the ‘evil empire’, had deployed medium-range nuclear missiles to Europe and begun the Star Wars project the UK Government mapped out a likely scenario if there was a nuclear war.

The likely scenario in the event of a nuclear war was that the Russians would hit 50 UK cities with nuclear bombs. Included in those would have been Belfast and Derry.

Inishowen

Derry would have been obliterated and the nuclear fallout from the Derry attack would spread to Portstewart, Coleraine, Ballymoney and Limavady. One can assume that it would have spread to Inishowen too.

Many people here would have had radiation sickness and food supplies would have been running out with many people starving.

Many people would have died. Many others would later have children suffering from deformities. Many others would decide not to have children in case they were born with deformities.

Lots of people in Inishowen now who are under 30 would never have been born.

Never Born

I was in London at the time and would have been wiped out. Although I had met my wife by then we were not going out and we would never have married in 1987. My children would never have been born.

Of course, it never happened.

There was no nuclear war in 1983.

But there could have been and the nuclear weapons are still in existence – and the human race doesn’t seem to have learned much since then.