“Special forces” types were quite common in many estates in NI - housing estates, though I never got to meet any…
My brother-in-law lived quite close to the International Airport about 18 miles out of Belfast in a very quiet and peaceful country area. One sunday we were there for lunch and afterwards took his labs out for a walk up the narrow hedge-lined road which his house was on. There was only one other house on that road and it was huge - owned by a chap who ran a very big construction firm. Being high summer the roadsides were heavily weeded and the hedges thick, suddenly one lab which was twenty yards ahead dived into the overgrown ditch and all we could see was his tail which was wagging furiously; to our surprise he wouldn’t answer the recall so we though he was onto a rabbit or phezzie.
By the time we got up to him the “rabbit”, all six foot of him and bedecked in freshly cut weeds and twigs was climbing out of the hedge carrying a distinctly non-issue Armalite! Before we knew what was going on we were surrounded by half a dozen very serious gentlemen dressed in the same vaguely becoming fashion who, in a not very subtle or gentle way, were quite interested in who we were, etc……
Long story short and told later to my B-i-L by the owner of the construction firm they were “daring chaps determined to win” who were on a stake-out as intel was that he was going to be ‘hit” because his firm did work for the security forces. This happened on more than one occasion with my B-i-L - fortunately never again to me.
As a sad footnote this chap’s son was killed along with two others shortly after he joined the police. His father renamed the firm after him as a tribute to his memory. Bad old days…….
