A small drift. There was an interesting article in Sunday's Observer's colour magazine. It was by Bernadette Devlin McAliskey. (Yes she's still alive and kicking). She describes the time when she and her husband were shot by loyalist thugs. I quote the relevant section. "In October 1981, when the first prisoner hunger strike started, the UDA leader John McMichael appeared on TV and said that if it continued they would shoot the leaders of the National H-Block Association. They had already shot and killed five of them when, on 15 January I came in from an H-Block meeting and found these soldiers lying outside my back door. The next morning at about seven, my husband Michael heard a car in the street and saw people come out with masks and a sledgehammer. They smashed the door in, shot me, shot my husband and walked out again. They didn't kill us because they ran out of bullets. They had to fire several shots before they got in because my husband fought with them, then I was hit eight times and my husband was hit seven. You don't feel it when you are shot, you smell it. The soldiers arrested the gunmen. They came in and one of the soldiers said 'We had orders to arrest them coming out'."
Self explanatory I think.