Monday, October 19, 2015

How the British Army Spread Rumors of Black Magic and Witchcraft in 1970s Northern Ireland | VICE | United States

The Information Policy group may not have started the rumors, but they fed them in order to smear paramilitary organizations. It was only one aspect of a broader black propaganda strategy, which also relied on more "classic" defamatory rumors involving misappropriated money, communism, and drug trafficking. Their aim was to establish a link in the public opinion between the rise of paramilitary groups' violence and things that both the protestant and catholic communities would find objectionable. Ireland's strong religious culture and supernatural folklore gave the military the idea of this new kind of threat which could also encourage people—especially children and teenagers—to stay home at night. 

I called Richard Jenkins up for a chat about this weird phenomenon.

How the British Army Spread Rumors of Black Magic and Witchcraft in 1970s Northern Ireland | VICE | United States

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