The momentous news that the British Army has ended operations in Northern Ireland came as a reminder of the grim days when the evening news was scarred by the latest atrocity in the province.
I still remember where I was when I heard about the 1979 murders of Lord Mountbatten and 18 British soldiers at Warrenpoint. Those twin outrages shocked a nation that had become weary of the Troubles. The idea that one day the army would pull out seemed an impossible dream.
The photos are stills from a cine film shot by my father Bob Skinner on an official visit by the Lord Mayor of Cardiff, Hugh Ferguson-Jones, to the Royal Welch Fusiliers in Northern Ireland in the early 1970s.
Oddly, in decades of the Troubles I don't remember once hearing the Army's role in the province referred to as Operation Banner.
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