The elderly parents of a toddler killed by a no-warning IRA bomb are bracing themselves for an emotional service today marking fifty years since the loss of their son Colin.
Sinn Fein, as well as the SDLP, do not want to commemorate the centenary of Northern Ireland. Instead, in 2021 Sinn Fein will probably look back 50 years to commemorate the introduction of internment in 1971 and, indeed, 1971 was a particularly important year in Ulster.
After the emergence of the Provisional IRA in December 1969, they spent much of 1970 on consolidation. That year, 29 people were killed and 19 of the deaths were the result of actions by republicans.
The consolidation of 1970 paved the way for the escalation of 1971. During that year, 180 people were killed and, of that number, republicans were responsible for 107.
Republican apologists often suggest that the escalation was a reaction to internment, known as Operation Demetrius, but that is said in an effort to conceal the cynical reality of the IRA strategy.